Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Coeliac Disease: a Series of Studies

The global prevalence of coeliac disease (CD) is increasing, which contributes to the disease's significant public health care burden. Body composition and metabolic parameters of coeliac patients differ from the healthy population. Patients with non-classical CD are not necessarily lean; they usually have normal body weight but can be even overweight or obese. In coeliac patients, bodyweight tends to elevate, whereas the body composition changes unfavourably during a gluten-free diet (GFD). A reason for gaining weight is the improvement of malabsorption but an important contributor is the nutrient composition of the GFD, which generally has a high calorie density with high carbohydrate and fat content while being low in fibre. While terminating or mitigating the inflammatory process - if done without adequate dietary control - a GFD can readily lead to weight gain and unfavourably metabolic consequences (e.g., dyslipidemia, fatty liver disease, insulin resistance). The result can be an increase in cardiovascular risk in CD patients with a normal or high body weight at diagnosis. However, limited information is available on the cardiovascular (CV) risk in coeliac disease, and the data are controversial. This study examines the body composition and cardiovascular risk-related metabolic parameters at the diagnosis and on a gluten-free diet in a Hungarian cohort of CD patients. The randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigates the effect of structured, repeated, group-based dietary education on the examined metabolic parameters and body composition.

This study aims to draw attention to a new aspect of the management of CD patients: from a metabolic and cardiovascular point of view. Findings will help to identify which parameters are beneficial to optimize and re-assess during follow-up in CD.