Is Celiac Disease (CD) Prevalent in Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS): A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease, and its prevalence reported variously in different studies. The goal of this study is to evaluate the pooled prevalence of CD in subjects with MS. METHODS: PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Google Scholar along with gray literature were systematically searched. The search included all relevant studies which were published up to October 2022. Two researchers independently searched all databases and also references of included studies. RESULTS: We found 8211 articles by literature search, and after deleting duplicates, 5594 remained. Fifteen articles remained for meta-analysis. Totally, 31418 patients were evaluated, and the total number of possible/confirmed cases was 124. Studies were published between 2004 and 2020, and the most published studies were from Italy. Five studies provided information regarding controls. The total number of controls was 22394, of whom 22 had CD. Mean age ranged from 35 to 55 years. The pooled prevalence of CD in MS patients was 0 (I(2) = 88.2%, p < 0.001). The pooled odds of CD in subjects with MS are 0.46 (95% CI: 0.19-1.1) (I(2) = 0, p = 0.9). CONCLUSION: The pooled prevalence of this systematic review showed that CD is not prevalent in MS cases.