Down's syndrome is strongly associated with coeliac disease - Dissertation Example

 Down's syndrome is strongly associated with coeliac disease Down’s syndrome is a genetic condition characterized by one having 47 chromosomes instead of the normal 46 (Fish 2009). In Down syndrome, it is usually associated with a number of conditions due to the aberrant chromosome. Based on increased incidence of coeliac disease occurrence in patients suffering from Down’s syndrome, a lot of interest was drawn if the two had a correlation or was just a misnomer Various researches have been conducted to find out whether Down’s syndrome is associated with coeliac disease occurrence (Duggan et. al. 2014).

In an experiment, to examine the associations, matched controls of patients were examined. Fifty nine patients, who had Down’s syndrome and resided majorly in government institutions in New South Wale, were taken as subjects in the research. All of these subjects came from Hunter region. In the research, only four patients were the ones that got excluded due to the fact that one became terminally ill whereas the other three were uncooperative with the process. The remaining fifty five respondents were each matched with control patients based on sex, age and residence.

In addition, in the research, both positive IgG and IgA, anti-gliadin levels were got by endoscopial duodenal biopsy of the given patients and initial titres taken (Duggan et. al. 2014). Initially, only twenty one patients plus two from the control group showed raised levels of IgG and IgA antibodies. When tissue samples were obtained from 18 of the patients, it was found out that only two shoed characteristic lymphocytic infiltration that did not qualify for the diagnosis of coeliac disease.

In addition, they also found two giardiasis, while eight of the rest were normal (Duggan et. al. 2014). Furthermore, in one of the obtained tissue, analysis was not done since it had not be obtained well. In the analysis, few differences were found to occur between the various subgroups in their hematological, anthropomorphic and biochemical findings. It was found out that the prevalence of coeliac disease in Down’s syndrome patients was higher than in the controlled group. In the controlled group, coeliac disease occurrence was very little as compared to the population that had down’s syndrome.

In another research conducted by Lenshin et. al. in 2004, while studying coeliac disease, discovered that Down’s syndrome patients were more likely to suffer from the condition and attributed it to their autoimmune state. Lorete et.al (2005) on the other hand was studying the relationship of celiac disease in adolescents and children and found a link too to those having Down’s syndrome. She conducted her studies in Brazil with 71 down syndrome patients and 80 controls. She found antibody titers of IgA markedly increased in down syndrome patients.

Others who found the same results in their research were Mackey (2009) and Skotko (2012). In looking at the given articles, the common denominator is the prevalence of coeliac disease in patients with Down’s syndrome using scientific evidence between the subjects and the controlled group.Bibliograhy