title: Hypereosinophilic syndrome: case report and morphometric study.
abstract: A clinical study of a patient with hypereosinophilic syndrome is presented. The blood eosinophil count reached 273 x 10(9) cells per litre. There were only mild symptoms but skin, lung and heart were affected. There was a good response to treatment. In a morphometric analysis, the patient's eosinophils were compared with those of 9 healthy subjects, using appropriate multiple comparison procedures. The patient's eosinophils showed significantly increased cell size and surface area. Mitochondrial volume and surface area were also increased and there were more mitochondrial profiles per section. The eosinophil granules showed a striking reduction in total volume, both the number of profiles and the profile area of individual granules being decreased. These findings are consistent with inappropriate activation and degranulation, a relatively orderly degranulation perhaps accounting for the mild symptoms. This investigation illustrates the value of morphometry in quantitating cellular changes in haematological disorders.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000473:pathology*; D004804:Eosinophils / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D013577:Syndrome