title: Esophageal involvement as an initial manifestation of Churg-Strauss syndrome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) is a systemic disease characterized by asthma, blood and tissue eosinophilia, and necrotizing vasculitis with extravascular eosinophilic granulomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe two cases of patients with CSS: a 56-year-old man, whose presentation was highly unusual because its initial predominant manifestation was odynophagia, and a 35-year-old man whose disease was diagnosed after a work-up because of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In both cases, thoracic computerized tomography scans showed congestive esophagitis with a markedly thickened esophageal wall at diagnosis and at relapse. Both the vasculitis and the esophageal involvement improved with treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gastrointestinal (GI) involvement is frequent in CSS patients and is one of the major causes of death associated with CSS. Nonetheless, eosinophilic vasculitis-related esophagitis is very rare.
authors.affiliation: Service de Médecine Interne, Centre de Référence Maladies Rares, Hôpital Cochin, AP-HP, Université Paris Descartes, Paris.
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mir
authors.forename: Eve-Marie
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Nazal
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Vignaux
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krivitzky
authors.forename: Boyan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Christoforov
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jian
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mouthon
authors.forename: Loïc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guillevin
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000209:etiology; D000328:Adult; D015267:Churg-Strauss Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D004941:Esophagitis / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009325:Nausea / Q000209:etiology; D014839:Vomiting / Q000209:etiology