The U.S Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has concluded that there is not enough evidence to understand the potential benefits and the risks of issuing a screening for celiac disease on non-symptomatic patients.  

The USPSTF has a panel of experts in primary care and prevention that is in charge of reviewing the effectiveness to develop clinical researches and recommends preventive services.

USPSTF-Celiac-Disease
Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects primarily the small intestine, it occurs when the patients are genetically predisposed to the disease. Credit: glutenfreegigi

While measuring the benefits of recommending doctors a wider screening on patients that may suffer from celiac disease due to family history,  the task force didn’t find enough evidence to start the screenings.

Early celiac detection and treatments

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that affects primarily the small intestine, it occurs when the patients are genetically predisposed to the disease. It is commonly associated with other autoimmune diseases like diabetes type 1 and thyroiditis. Patients react to gluten, that’s included in different proteins such as wheat, grains, and oats.

According to the USPSTF in the U.S population celiac disease is present among adults from 0.40% to 0.95%, having a higher prevalence in on-Hispanic, white patients with a family history of the disease.

The USPSTF was determining whether to recommend a large screening of possible patients to have an early detection of the disease,to comment on this matter researchers held a study.

The study has held among asymptomatic populations and was compared to studies that were not restricted to only persons without symptoms.

The USPSTF investigated 40 screen-detected adults without symptoms and gave them a gluten-free diet for one year, this type of commonly associated with bettering gastrointestinal symptoms.

As a result of the study Alex H. Krist, M.D from the task force commented: “More evidence on the screening for celiac disease is needed before the Task Force can recommend for or against screening people who don’t have any signs or symptoms of the disease” Said the Task Force member in a statement.

Source: USPSTF