Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in North Indian patients with celiac disease

Occasionally celiac patients continue to experience gastro-intestinal symptoms even with a gluten free diet. In these cases, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth may be one of the causes of the lack of response. Therefore, this prospective study was planned to determine the prevalence of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth in celiac patients.

We studied 87 confirmed cases of celiac disease from North India and 87 age and sex matched controls. Celiac disease was confirmed by positive IgA antitissue transglutaminase on ELISA. 80 g glucose hydrogen breath test (non-invasive test) was performed to establish small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. Rise of more than 10 ppm in hydrogen concentration over baseline value within two hours was considered suggestive of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

Out of 87 patients with celiac disease, 49 were male and 38 were female. The mean (+/-SD) age for male patients was 26.3 +/- 16.3 years (range 14-59 years) and for female patients was 28.4 +/- 15.6 years (range 16-58 years). Amongst the controls, 52 (59.8%) were male and 35 (40.2%) were female. The mean (+/- SD) age for male controls was 27.6 +/- 14.5 years (range 15-57 years) and for female controls was 29.3 +/- 16.5 years (range 18-59 years). Hydrogen breath test was suggestive of bacterial overgrowth in 18 of the 87 (20.7%) celiac disease patients but not in any of the apparently healthy controls.

This study indicates that a large number of celiac patients from North India suffer from bacterial overgrowth which can be accordingly treated with antibiotics.