Findings from a large case-control study support a link between alopecia areata and celiac disease.
Published online in Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, this research followed up on an earlier cross-sectional study (Dev K et al: Frequency of cutaneous disorders in patients with celiac disease. Cureus Sept. 21, 2021; 13(9):e18148) that suggested the association.
In this new study, researchers used the TriNetX data sharing platform to identify 509,910 patients with celiac disease and compar them to 622,747 controls to measure differences in risk outcome for alopecia areata.
The authors say analysis of the data suggests that patients with celiac disease have an elevated risk (odds ratio 1.25(1.129-1.385, p<0.0001)) of developing alopecia areata compared to controls.
They note potential limitations to their findings include the data being sourced solely from a U.S. population, potential errors in charting, misdiagnoses, and the erroneous filing of ICD codes to patient charts due to TriNetX utilizing AI to search for patient data.
“The large sample size leveraged in this study substantiates an association that was previously suggested but not well established,” investigators write in their conclusion. “The compelling degree of association found, even with the possible errors inherent in large, automatically compiled databases, affirms the long suspected association between CD [celiac disease] and increased risk of AA [alopecia areata].”
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