Objectives: To determine the prevalence of anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies in apparently healthy general populations in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Subjects and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at the King Abdulaziz University in the
period 13 May 2019 – 1 October 2019. We used blood samples in ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA) tubes, taken from 714
healthy blood donors, consisting of 622 Saudi (311 males) and 92 non-Saudi (46 males). The anti-tissue Transglutaminase-IgA (tTGIgA),
was determined in the plasma using ELISA kits (Euroimmun Medical Laboratory Diagnostics, Seekamp, Luebeck, Germany). The
ABO and Rh blood groups were determined by the slide agglutination method using antisera from Dialab GmbH – Neudor, Austria.
For the data analysis we used the statistical package for social science (IBM SPSS Inc., version 20). Results: 1-tTG-IgA in Saudi normal
subjects. Eighteen (2.9%) plasma samples were positive for tTG-IgA antibodies. Positive males were twice as much as positive
females, with no significant difference (p=0.151). Positivity for tTG-IgA also showed no significant correlations (p>0.05) neither with
the blood groups (ABO and Rh) nor with the age groups. 2- tTG-IgA in non-Saudi normal subjects. Three (3.2%) samples were
positive for tTG-IgA, with no significant difference between Saudi and non-Saudi subjects (P>0.05). Conclusion: High prevalence of
tTG-IgA in apparently healthy blood donors suggesting a high prevalence of undiagnosed celiac disease in the Saudi population.
Males were double the rate of females for the tTG-IgA positivity.
Keywords: tTG-IgA in SA, tTG-IgA in general population, tTG-IgA in blood donors, prevalence of tTG-IgA.