Liver Manifestation of Patients with Celiac Disease: A Single Center Experience

Objectives: Characterize the clinicopathologic features of liver biopsies from patients with celiac disease (CD). Methods: Single center, retrospective search for liver biopsies from patients with CD. Results: 36 unique patients were included, median age of 46 years (range: 2-75), including 5 pediatric patients, with an overall female predominance (25, 69 %) but in in children a male predominance was seen ( p = 0.023). Most cases (75 %) had an underlying condition including autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) (11 %), AIH/primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) overlap (3 %) and PBC (3 %). The median body mass index was 28, with 4 (11 %) underweight and 22 (61 %) overweight/obese patients. The most common histologic pattern was steatosis (18, 50 %), considered severe in 5 (14 %) and in 7 (19 %) regarded as steatohepatitis. The other histologic patterns included a nonspecific portal and/or lobular inflammation ("celiac hepatitis") in 9 cases (25 %), autoimmune hepatitis (3, 8 %), chronic cholestatic pattern (3, 8 %), chronic hepatitis (1, 3 %), acute lobular hepatitis (1, 3 %) and stablished cirrhosis (1, 3 %). Additionally, 2 of the cases with steatosis show cirrhosis. Conclusions: The biopsy findings from patients with CD are heterogenous and in most represent a concomitant underlying disease, particularly metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Additionally, CD injury should remain in the differential diagnosis in liver biopsies with a nonspecific portal and/or lobular inflammation.