title: [Churg-Strauss syndrome].
abstract: Churg-Strauss syndrome is a vasculitis associated with asthma and eosinophilia. Respiratory involvement is marked by generally severe and often steroid-dependent late-onset asthma associated with allergic rhinitis and sometimes nasal polyposis and recurrent sinusitis. Asthma generally precedes the systemic vasculitis by a few years. General signs, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, peripheral multiplex neuropathy, cutaneous vasculitis, nephropathy, or arthromyalgia, predominate. Cardiac involvement is often silent but of severe prognosis. The chest X-ray usually shows irregularly delimited and sometimes labile infiltrates. Perinuclear antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) are found in two-thirds of the patients and strongly suggest the diagnosis. Clinically, the diagnosis is established by the presence of asthma, peripheral eosinophilia > 1.5 G/L, and systemic vasculitis involving at least two extra-pulmonary organs. Histological confirmation is usually necessary (nerve and muscle biopsy), showing small-vessel eosinophilic vasculitis, tissue infiltration with eosinophils, and eosinophilic granulomas. Treatment includes corticosteroids, which should be associated with immunosuppressive agents (cyclophosphamide) in severe cases.
authors.affiliation: Service de Pneumologie, Hôpital Louis-Pradel, Université Claude-Bernard, BP Lyon-Montchat, 69394 Lyon Cedex 03. vincent.cottin@chu-lyon.fr
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Cottin
authors.forename: J-F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Cordier
mesh_terms: D015267:Churg-Strauss Syndrome / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis
vernacular_title: Syndrome de Churg et Strauss.