Dilated cardiomyopathy in celiac disease. Although celiac disease is primarily an intestinal compromise, increasingly finds its relation to other systemic illnesses as autoimmune thyroid disease, diabetes and lupus erythematosus.
On the other hand, doctors have found a high prevalence of celiac disease in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, and in most cases the patients did not show the classic symptoms of the condition.
The profuse diarrhea, abdominal pain, weight loss were not overlapping symptoms in the patient group studied, but did have in common a picture of refractory iron deficiency anemia.
In some of the patients had progressive heart failure, and the rest was found the presence of myocarditis associated with ventricular arrhythmias, and is therefore the suspicion arises that celiac disease is closely linked with these cardiac abnormalities, being indispensable immunological studies in people that suffer.
The early diagnosis of celiac disease is crucial because the involvement of the heart can be detected in early stages before decanting in clinical heart failure. There are cases of children suffering from celiac subclinical diastolic dysfunction.
It is believed that nutritional deficiencies by chronic malabsorption of nutrients have a predominant role in the development of coronary heart disease, on the other hand, the alterations in intestinal permeability would leave the way open to multiple antigens capable of generating autoimmune myocardial damage.
Gluten-free diet has positive clinical response in most cases of dilated cardiomyopathy, treatment of celiac disease can stop or reverse the progression of cardiac involvement.
Celiac disease is associated with various systemic complications that increase morbidity and mortality, it is noteworthy that the relationship between celiac disease and dilated cardiomyopathy is rare, but the diagnosis of celiac disease and treatment are crucial to ensure the survival of the individual.
Tags: celiac disease, classic symptoms, thyroid disease