The Medical Journal of Basrah University

ABSTRACT
The study initially included 66 patients with clinical suspicion of celiac disease (CD). Forty-four (17 males and 27 females) fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of CD. The study revealed that the common histopathological finding of duodenal mucosa in CD was subtotal villous atrophy 22(50%), while total villous atrophy was found only in 6(13.6%) of patients. Also, 88.6% of patients had changes of gastric mucosa ranging from superficial gastritis to intestinal metaplasia. Gastric intraepithelial lymphocytosis (IEL) was found in 12(27.3%) of patients, and was significantly associated with both, the degree of duodenal changes and with H. pylori infection (P<0.05). On the other hand, H. pylori documented by histopathology was found in 30(68.2%) patients and by urease test in 33(75.4%) patients. We conclude that H. pylori infection is not uncommon in patients with CD, & Gastric IEL is an important histopathological finding, correlating with duodenal changes as well as H. pylori infection.