THURSDAY, July 2 (HealthDay News) -- During the past 50 years, the prevalence of undiagnosed celiac disease may have increased by more than four-fold, and undiagnosed disease is associated with a nearly four-fold increased risk of mortality, according to a study published in the July issue of Gastroenterology.

Alberto Rubio-Tapia, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues collected sera from 9,133 personnel at Warren Air Force Base in 1948 and 1954, and compared the results with those of 12,786 gender-matched subjects from two recent cohorts in Olmstead County, Minn.

The researchers identified undiagnosed celiac disease in 14 (0.2 percent) Air Force personnel, and, over a 45-year follow-up, found that they had a significantly increased risk of all-cause mortality compared to seronegative subjects (hazard ratio, 3.9). In the two recent cohorts, they found that the rate of undiagnosed celiac disease was 0.8 and 0.9 percent, which represented an increased prevalence of four- to 4.5-fold.

"Thus, early detection and treatment of presymptomatic celiac disease seem logical if we assume that strict adherence to a gluten-free diet has the same positive effect in undiagnosed celiac disease as previously shown in symptomatic celiac disease," the authors write. "Exploring the potential benefits of early detection and intervention with a gluten-free diet is also important because undiagnosed celiac disease results in excess mortality during middle age."

Abstract
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