Simple test for eosinophilic esophagitis

A simple new test, in which the patient swallows a string, can monitor treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis as effectively as an invasive, expensive and uncomfortable procedure that risks complications, particularly in children.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, in collaboration with clinician-investigators at the University of Colorado Denver/Children's Hospital Colorado and Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, have developed a simple new test to monitor the treatment of eosinophilic esophagitis.

The test involve the patient swallowing a string, and is said to be as effective as more invasive and expensive procedures. The findings of the study were published recently online in the journal Gut.

Eosinophilic esophagitis, or EoE, is a food-allergy inflammatory disease of the oesophagus in both children and adults. The condition is rare, but is steadily increasing in incidence. In EoE, inflammatory cells in the body called eosinophils attack the oesophagus, which narrows until food cannot pass, causing painful impactions.

"Most cases are first encountered in the emergency room, where a child is brought in because something he ate is caught in his oesophagus," says Steven Ackerman, University of Illinois at Chicago professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics and co-principal investigator on the study.

Eosinophils produce specific proteins that serve as biomarkers, since these inflammatory cells are not normally found in the oesophagus. These proteins can indicate the extent of inflammation in the oesophagus.

Endoscopy is currently used to diagnose EoE and monitor its treatment. A lighted, flexible instrument is inserted down the oesophagus and used to obtain six to eight tissue samples for biopsy from sections along its length from throat to stomach.

A child may require 10, 15, or even 20 such procedures over three or four years, say two of the report's authors, co-principal investigator Dr. Glenn Furuta, professor of paediatrics at the University of Colorado at Denver, and Dr Amir Kagalwalla, associate professor of paediatrics at NortAir Max 90 VT QS