2017 – Coeliac Disease

Title: Night Sweats, Stress Activation and Coeliac Disease

Authors: Dimitrios Cassimos, Katerina Kambouri, Antigoni Mavroudi, Ioannis Xinias, Stavros Thomaidis, Maria Aggelidou, Stefanos Gardikis and Athanasios Chatzimichael

Published: Glob Pediatr Health. 2017; 4: 2333794X17744138.

Link: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177%2F2333794X17744138

Abstract

Coeliac disease (CD) is a genetic, immunologically mediated small-bowel enteropathy that causes malabsorption. It occurs mainly in childhood, but it can also present in adulthood. The condition is characterized by a permanent sensitivity to gluten that results in inflammation and atrophy of the mucosa of the small intestine.1 CD has a wide variety of clinical presentations: the “classical” form, in which an intestinal symptomatology is prevalent with symptoms such as diarrhea, steatorrhea, and nutritional and vitamin deficiencies; the “atypical” form with predominating extraintestinal clinical features; and the “silent” form with no clinical symptoms. Atypical forms of CD have been reported with conditions of autoimmune origin. Secondary immunological illnesses may be the primary presentation of the disease.2

Night sweats are episodes of nighttime sweating that result in soaking of nightclothes or even beddings, and in most cases, these are signs of different underlying medical conditions.3

In this article, we present a case of a child with night sweats as a symptom that not only resulted in the diagnosis of an atypical form of CD but also helped in detecting relapses of the disease.