Esophageal involvement as an initial manifestation of Churg-Strauss syndrome.
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.
Mir
Olivier
O
Service de Médecine Interne, Centre de Référence Maladies Rares, Hôpital Cochin, AP-HP, Université Paris Descartes, Paris.
Nazal
Eve-Marie
EM
Cohen
Pascal
P
Vignaux
Olivier
O
Krivitzky
Alain
A
Christoforov
Boyan
B
Jian
Raymond
R
Mouthon
Luc
L
Guillevin
Loïc
L
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