Haemorheological, Natural Anticoagulant and Homocysteine Profiles in Coeliac Disease: a Case-control Study

Abstract

Coeliac disease (CeD) is an immune-mediated disease, which develops upon gluten ingestion in genetically predisposed individuals. CeD patients are at a higher risk of acute arterial and venous thrombotic events. In this study, we aimed to assess if prothrombotic alterations characterize CeD patients, with special focus on rheological properties of blood and its cellular elements, i.e. haemorheology. This study is a case-control study registered under registration number ISRCTN49677481. Cases were adult, biopsy-verified CeD patients, controls were subjects in whom CeD was excluded. All participants were free from acute and advanced chronic diseases. In addition to a routine set of laboratory studies, we measured haemorheological parameters, the activity of natural anticoagulants (protein C, protein S and antithrombin) and the level of homocysteine. The haemorheological profile included haematocrit, whole blood viscosity (WBV), plasma viscosity, fibrinogen, erythrocyte aggregation (EA) and erythrocyte deformability (ED, described with the elongation index at high and low shear stresses). We compared CeD patients to control subjects with uni- and multivariate statistics and investigated the effects of dietary adherence in CeD.