The Atopic Diseases in Children Having Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis

Abstract

Background: Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is a chronic antigen mediated inflammatory disease that may occur in any part of the intestine, with a significant increase in the incidence in the last years. It might correlate to the increasing in atopic diseases. Materials and methods: An Observational Descriptive study (Case series) was conducted in 57 children with eosinophilic gastroenteritis. They are selected from Pediatric Gastroenterology Clinic, Tishreen University Hospital between September 2016 and September 2021. Results: A total of 57 children, 38 males (66.7%) and 19 females (33.3%) were included in the study. The median age was 5 years, and the most frequent age group was ≤ 3 year (43.9%). Growth failure (45.6%) and abdominal pain (29.8%) represented the most frequent clinical complaints. Many parts of the gastrointestinal tract were affected, and duodenum was the most affected part (63.2%), followed by duodenal bulb (8.8%), colon (5.3%), esophageal (3.5%), and stomach (3.5%). Family history of atopic diseases was present in 29.8% of the cases, especially in both parents (15.8%). The most common atopic features were asthma (36.8%) and allergic rhinitis (31.6%). Milk represented the most frequent food allergen (10.5%), which was diagnosed according to clinical history and food intolerance tests with presence of a significant correlation between food allergy and histological findings (p: 0.02). There were significant differences of the atopic features according to the age groups, in which asthma and allergic rhinitis diagnosed by physicians were more frequent in the older age, whereas other manifestations (urticaria, atopic dermatitis, and food allergy) were more frequent in the children younger than 3 years.