MO418: The Risk of Renal Co-Morbidities in Celiac Disease Patients Depends on the Phenotype of Celiac Disease

Abstract BACKGROUND AND AIMS Albeit the association between renal disorders and celiac disease is still somewhat contradictory, an elevated risk of kidney diseases in patients with celiac disease has been shown [1, 2, 3]. Only case reports have described the link between glomerulonephritis and dermatitis herpetiformis, a cutaneous manifestation of celiac disease [4]. This study aimed to evaluate whether patients with various phenotypes of celiac disease have an increased risk of renal co-morbidities compared with matched references. METHODS: The diagnoses of glomerulonephritis, diabetic nephropathy, interstitial nephritis and end-stage renal disease were collected from the Finnish National Hospital Discharge Register from 1970 to 2015 among 1440 celiac disease patients and 4296 age- and sex-matched references. Further, patients were divided into two cohorts, dermatitis herpetiformis and any other phenotype of celiac disease. We used Cox proportional-hazards model to compare the risk of renal co-morbidities between patients and reference individuals. RESULTS Celiac disease was positively associated with renal disorders even after adjusting for type 1 diabetes [hazard ratio (HR) 1.81, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.18–2.76]. A 3-fold and 12-fold risk increase were seen for glomerulonephritis and IgA nephropathy, respectively. A similar risk increase for renal co-morbidities in dermatitis herpetiformis was not shown. CONCLUSIONS: Celiac disease was associated with an increased risk of renal co-morbidities, especially glomerulonephritis. The risk depends on the phenotype of celiac disease. The possible association between renal disorders and celiac disease should be investigated more in the future and kept in mind also in clinical practice.