Global prevalence of ultra-short coeliac disease (USCD): the first systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

We reviewed the recent cohort study by Raju et al 1 on ultra-short coeliac disease (USCD), the first multicentre international study assessing the characteristics of this new entity and comparing them to classic coeliac disease. The study revealed findings that may necessitate a re-evaluation of the current diagnostic guidelines and screening protocols. However, the results showed disparities in USCD prevalence rates among biopsy-confirmed cases across centres, ranging from 0.2% to 8.8%. Moreover, the study did not report the number of bulb biopsies conducted at each centre. Hence, we aimed to systematically assess the global prevalence of USCD and determine factors that might influence its rates. See the online supplemental document for subgroup analyses and methodology. Literature was searched from inception to June 2024 (PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, Scopus) for studies reporting the prevalence of USCD, using the term or reporting seropositive cases with villous atrophy (VA) confined to the bulb1 among biopsy-confirmed coeliac disease (CeD) participants.2 3 Meta-analyses were conducted using STATA V.18.0. Notably, two investigators independently performed each step, from screening to data extraction and quality assessment.### Supplementary data [gutjnl-2024-334688supp001.pdf] 32 …