Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) has increased rapidly and has been well characterized. However, no nationwide survey has been conducted regarding non-esophageal eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders (non-EoE EGIDs), and they remain poorly understood.
To compare the clinical features and natural histories of non-EoE EGIDs and EoE by using the same questionnaire, for all ages.
We conducted a nationwide hospital-based survey of patients who visited hospitals from January 2013 through December 2017. We randomly selected 10,000 hospitals that performed endoscopy. We analyzed the demographics, symptoms, gastrointestinal histology, treatments and natural histories of EoE and non-EoE EGIDs.
A total of 2,906 hospitals responded to the questionnaire. We identified 1,542 patients, and obtained detailed data for 786 patients, consisting of 39% EoE and 61% non-EoE EGIDs. The clinical characteristics were analyzed for patients who met the “definite” criteria that excluded comorbidities. Non-EoE EGIDs showed no gender difference, while EoE was male-predominant. Tissue eosinophilia was often seen in the small intestine (62%) and stomach (49%). The frequency of hypoproteinemia was high (27%) in childhood. Children also had more serious symptoms and complications than adults: restriction of daily life activity (P=.009), failure to grow/weight loss (P=.008), and surgery (P=.01). For both diseases the most common natural history was the continuous type: 66% (95% CI: 58-74) in EoE and 64% (95% CI: 55-72) in non-EoE EGIDs.
The percentage of persistent patients with non-EoE EGIDs was almost same as with EoE. Complications were more frequent in children than in adults.

Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Author