Children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) are significantly more likely to develop celiac disease (CD), a condition that, like T1D, involves lifelong dietary management. The increased risk, which is three to four times higher than in the general population, resulted in routine screening recommendations for celiac disease-specific antibodies in children diagnosed with T1D.

However, new research from a 25-year retrospective analysis evaluated the necessity of this approach to screening. The research was published in Pediatric Diabetes.

In a study involving 304 children with T1D, 122 showed positive results for CD-specific antibodies, such as transglutaminase (TgAb), endomysium (EAb), or gliadin antibodies. Yet in 98 of those cases, the antibodies either vanished shortly after detection or remained only slightly elevated, and most of these children never developed symptoms of celiac disease.

Only 12 of the 122 children were confirmed to have CD. All of them had clear symptoms, including failure to thrive, anaemia, hypoglycaemia, or gastrointestinal issues. In six of the cases, even severely elevated antibodies disappeared on their own over an average of seven years while the children continued to eat a normal, gluten-containing diet. The other six children with elevated antibodies remained symptom-free for several years, with the antibody-positive phase lasting up to 11.6 years.