Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Med Genet. Jul 20, 2022; 10(1): 1-6
Published online Jul 20, 2022. doi: 10.5496/wjmg.v10.i1.1
Celiac sprue - a cryptic disease: A case report
Lisa R Maness
Lisa R Maness, Clinical Laboratory Science, Winston-Salem State University, Winston-Salem, NC 27110, United States
Author contributions: Dr. Lisa Maness wrote the entire article in full.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Lisa R Maness, PhD, Associate Professor, Clinical Laboratory Science, Winston-Salem State University, 601 S Martin Luther King Jr Drive, Winston-Salem, NC 27110, United States. manesslisa@gmail.com
Received: April 1, 2022
Peer-review started: April 1, 2022
First decision: April 28, 2022
Revised: April 29, 2022
Accepted: June 20, 2022
Article in press: June 20, 2022
Published online: July 20, 2022
Processing time: 109 Days and 11.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Celiac sprue, or celiac disease, is a relatively common disease whereby many are unaware that they have it. It often manifests with symptoms outside of the digestive system. Many health care providers are unaware of the wide variety of symptoms of celiac disease as well as diseases that are associated with it, often delaying diagnosis and treatment.

CASE SUMMARY

The following case indicates an otherwise healthy 20-year-old female who presents with a variety of symptoms and is ultimately diagnosed with shingles, infectious mononucleosis, and celiac disease

CONCLUSION

Although it is known that risk-factors are genetic as well as environmental, much more research is needed to better understand the relationship of potential causes. In addition, continuing education is needed in health care so that more practitioners better understand celiac disease.

Keywords: Celiac disease; Autoimmune disease; Shingles; Infectious mononucleosis; Case report

Core Tip: More studies are needed that correlate infectious agents such as Epstein-Barr virus and varicella zoster virus to celiac disease (CD). In addition, further in-depth studies on this particular patient, as well as others, may yield more information on immune status of patients with CD. This case and others demonstrate that more health care practitioners should understand that shingles can occur in patients outside of those recommended for vaccination; delaying treatment places patients more at risk. Practitioners also need to better understand CD, its wide range of symptoms, and its relationship to other infectious agents.