Associated symptoms

Patients with coeliac disease may also suffer with growth retardation and nutritional deficiencies causing anaemia and muscle wasting. Other symptoms may include bone fracture due to demineralisation, cerebellar ataxia and peripheral neuropathy. Joint pains, pyrexia, skin pigmentation and peripheral lymphadenopathy are among the varied symptoms of Whipple’s disease, resulting from infection with the bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. Steatorrhoea is the primary manifestation of intestinal lymphoma. It may be accompanied by abdominal pains and pyrexia and occasionally present with intestinal obstruction. Mouth ulcers, perianal abscesses, right iliac fossa pains and blood PR are some of the symptoms experienced by patients with Crohn’s disease. Ataxia and night blindness from retinitis pigmentosa may result from abetalipoproteinaemia, which is caused by the absence of apolipoprotein B and therefore results in defective chylomicron formation.