Evaluating the pre-diagnostic HbA1c level in celiacpatients

In this study, it was aimed to contribute to the literature related to the disease by evaluating the pre-diagnostic HbA1c level in celiac patients and comparing it with the control group. The population of our study group consisted of adult patients who were being followed up in our hospital's registration system due to the diagnosis of celiac disease and whose HbA1c was checked for any reason before the diagnostic tests and the sample was not selected. Since HbA1c is affected by various medical conditions, some exclusion criteria weredetermined. The control group was planned to consist of people who metthe exclusion criteria and who did not have known celiac disease and whose HbA1c level was checked for any reason in the registration system of our hospital and were planned to match the study group in number. Inaddition, in both groups, HbA1c level and other laboratory tests requested in the same period, demographic information such as age and gender, and medical history were retrospectively reviewed. As a result of the examination, our study group consisted of 28 celiac patients, themajority (%78,6) of whom were women and aged between 21-68 years. Our control group consisted of 28 patients who were similar to the study group in terms of age/gender, who did not have celiac disease, whose HbA1c was checked and who met the exclusion criteria and were selected by random sampling method. In conclusion, HbA1c levels of the study group were statistically lower than those of the control group (p<0.001). However, the fact that our study was conducted with a small number of celiac patients is a limitation. In addition, the fact that many conditions such as iron deficiency anaemia, which is common in celiac disease and not included in the exclusion criteria within the scope of the study, affect HbA1c makes it difficult to interpret the results of the study. In this sense, although there is a need for studies with larger samples on the subject; our study, which we could not find a similar example in the literature, is important in this respect. Key words: Celiac disease, HbA1c, gluten