OBJECTIVES: Statistics show that in Hungary, one in ten people has celiac disease, which means a significant burden for both the families, the health care system and the economy. Our research was designed to provide a comprehensive picture of all children diagnosed with celiac disease at the children's ward in Tolna County Hospital in 2016. We aimed to explore, identify correlations by reviewing the documents.

METHODS: During the retrospective, quantitative study patient documents (final report, medical record, and nursing diary) of 132 persons (84 male and 48 female) were reviewed. Their average age was 7.74 years (SD ± 4.46). 28 questions based on the following variables - basic demographic data, symptoms, diagnostic tests, comorbidities, family – were analysed. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used with 95% probability level, we used the SPSS statistics program.

RESULTS: 79.5% of the patients were diagnosed with classical clinical symptoms, 17.4% were atypical and 3% did not show any symptoms. Regarding diagnosed patients significantly more (65%) girls (p = 0.00) with classic symptoms occurred than boys (35%). Associated diseases occurred in 59%, these include anemia (34%), lactose intolerance (17%), diabetes (8%) and eczema (8%). The sample mainly had serological studies (60%), only four cases were negative results due to low levels of IgA, or lack IgA. In patients with IgA deficiency, a biopsy confirmed the disease in 100%. More invasive procedure, biopsy were made in 62.12%, which revealed villus atrophy in 96.23%. Due to the family involvement celiac disease occurred in 43.2%, 65% in siblings, 16% in mothers, and only some cases in fathers, grandparents and cousins.

CONCLUSIONS: The investigation shown that celiac disease can appear not only in young children but later in life and need to pay attention to family history, because they can help in the rapid diagnosis.