Definition:
Eosinophilic gastroenteritis or EG is a heterogeneous condition which is usually rare and characterized by some patchy or diffuse infiltration of the gastrointestinal tissue. It is also classified into different clasifications like serosal, mucosal, and muscular types basing on the involvement depth. For this condition, any part of the gastrointestinal tract may be affected. Also an involvment of the isolated biliary tract was reported. Most of the time it is the stomach that is commonly affected, then the small intestine and then the colon
Diagnosis:
There are three criteria suggested by Talley et al. and is still very widely used by physicians, this includes noting the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms, histological demonstration of some eosinophilic infiltration in one or other more areas in the gastrointestinal tract, presence of high level of eosinophil count in the ascitic fluid are also noted, if the patients have no evidence of any parasitic or an extraintestinal disease.
Treatment:
The most common and most widely used treatment for this disease is the use of Corticosteroid drugs. There is no known appropriate duration of the treatment and relapses often times cause the necessity of a long term treatment. Some other steroid sparing agents like sodium cromoglycate which is a known stabilizer of cell (mast) membranes, ketotifen, and montelukast have also been proposed to be used which centers around an allergic hypothesis with different often mixed results. A programmed diet aimed for elimination of the disease may also be successful if there are only limited food allergies identified by the physician.
Symptoms and Signs:
Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is most commonly associated with a combination of some chronic nonspecific symptoms. These include vomiting, pain in the abdomen, nausea, diarrhea, loss of weight, and some abdominal distension. A relatively high clinical suspicion is often times required in order to establish the diagnosis because the disease is very rare. Although sometimes, the disease may present itself as an acute obstruction in the abdomen or bowel obstruction.
Causes:
Cause of the condition esoinophilic gastroenteritis is still unknown.
:
eosinophilicgastroenteritis
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