While there isn’t too much data on the clinical association of celiac disease and hives, at least one past study has shown a strong link between the two conditions. The study in question was conducted in Italy in 2005, and it involved the screening for celiac disease of 79 children who were known to have oral antihistamine-resistant chronic hives. The results were compared to those of 2545 healthy controls.

The outcome of the study was that celiac disease was diagnosed in 5% of the group that had chronic idiopathic hives, while only 0.67% of children in the control group were found to have celiac disease. The occurrence of celiac disease in the hives-stricken group was concluded to be significantly more frequent than the occurrence of celiac disease in the control group.

The children with both chronic hives and celiac disease were subsequently fed a gluten-free diet. After a period of 5 to 10 weeks, their chronic hives cleared completely. However, their celiac disease serological tests remained abnormal until they had been on the gluten-free diet for 5 to 9-month.

If once considers the results of the study meaningful, then it is apparent that, in this particular group of children, chronic hives were related to the mechanism by which allergic reactions to gluten were triggered. This is obviously not the case for all cases of chronic idiopathic hives, but it does suggest a possible line of investigation for medical researchers who want to understand hives better.

When the Association between Celiac Disease and Hives Is Not Statistically Significant

A second study to investigate the relationship between celiac disease and hives was also conducted in Italy. This time, the subjects were 80 adult patients with chronic idiopathic hives and a control group of 264 blood donors (none of whom had a history of chronic idiopathic hives). Out of the patients with idiopathic chronic hives, 1.25% tested positive for celiac disease.  Out of the control group, only 0.38% tested positive for celiac disease.

The association between celiac disease and hives (of the chronic, idiopathic variety) proved to be statistically insignificant. Hence, the researchers concluded that, as far as the population they tested was concerned, patients with chronic idiopathic hives were not more likely to have celiac disease than the hives-free general population.

The different conclusions suggested by the 2 studies make the case for devoting more time to studies on the clinical association between celiac disease and hives. It would especially make sense to conduct a comparative study of both child and adult populations using equally-sized control groups.