There are plenty of data showing that celiac disease (CD), or genetic gluten intolerance, is a common disorder in many areas of the world, for example, Europe, North America, north Africa, and the Middle East, affecting 1% of the general population on average (1). CD epidemiology in the Asian continent is largely unknown, however. With >1.3 billion people, China is the most populous nation and the second largest by land area in the world. Despite the size of China, evidence indicating the existence of CD in this population has been poor.In a series of 14 patients of Asian descent with biopsy-defined CD seen during the period 1982-2002, Freeman (2) found only 1 Chinese case, a 69-year-old woman who had been living in Canada for 20 years. In 2009, Jiang et al (3) reported on 4 of 62 adult Chinese patients with chronic diarrhea living in the Zhejiang province (southern China) who were eventually diagnosed as having CD, based on the histological pattern at the small intestinal biopsy (villous atrophy) and the clinical response to treatment with the gluten-free diet (GFD).
展开▼
