[Gluten-sensitive enteropathy: a disease to take into consideration - a case report]

Gluten-sensitive enteropathy or celiac disease is a chronic small intestinal immune-mediated enteropathy precipitated by exposure to dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals. Although the disease may manifest itself at any age, it occurs mostly in either early childhood or in the third or fourth decade of life. Malabsorption syndrome as a typical clinical feature is commonly absent. Patients may exhibit minor gastrointestinal complaints, as well as numerous extraintestinal manifestations. We report a 43-year-old female patient with mi gratory arthralgias as the leading symptom, fatigue, sideropenic anemia and mild intermittent diarrhoea, who was diagnosed with gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Four months after introduction of gluten-free diet the patient reported no arthralgias, and complete clinical response was achieved. The aim of our case-report was to show that migratory arthralgias can be an extraintestinal manifestation of gluten-sensitive enteropathy. Unexplained articular complaints should raise clinical suspicion of celiac disease.