Has anyone been diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis?!


Question: Has anyone been diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis?
Its supposed to be rare diagnosis. Was wondering if anyone was treated for this and how it went. thnks

Answers:

First, I wouldn't bother cutting and pasting from Google as you can get anything from the accurate to the absurd. However, APFED.org is a very helpful organization and has a lot of good info. My son has EoE. EoE is the correct abbreviation for Eosinophilic Esophagitis, as EE was already taken by Erosive Esophagitis. It's considered rare, but it isn't as rare as some people may think. Thankfully, there are several hospitals around the country that are beginning to specialize in the care of patients with EoE.

Most people do very well with an elimination diet. For many, they can eliminate the top 8 food allergens (wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, fish, shellfish, tree nuts and peanuts) and that's enough to allow them to clear and heal. Then they can add the foods back and figure out which of those foods are the culprits. For some, it can be more foods than that, or some of the top allergens and others (beef? corn? chicken? potatoes? ...and so on). Everyone is different, but the top 8 elimination diet is a very good place to start under the guidance of a gastroenterologist, allergist and nutritionist.

My son is allergic to many of the top 8 (we aren't finished trialing all of them), plus citrus fruits, at least some of the gluten grains (not celiac, just an EoE reaction), and others. We're still trying to pinpoint everything but we're almost done. He is very healthy when he isn't reacting to one of his problem foods.

Some people choose a steroid treatment (i.e. swallowed Flovent) which doesn't work for everyone, but does for many. It is a band-aid treatment, so you are not figuring out which foods are causing the problem, just covering the symptoms. Some people also have had side effects from those medications, but others haven't.

For my son, we had to eliminate everything and start from scratch, which is not the ideal but was the best option for him. We found that several other problems were related to his EoE but we wouldn't have realized that if we hadn't removed the food. Some people react within a week or two, but for others it can take longer. My son's reactions show up in 4 wks, but he is not the norm.

It's a delayed reaction (cell-mediated), not an immediate reaction like regular allergies (IgE-mediated), so allergy testing is not all that effective in pinpointing the problem foods, but it's definitely worthwhile to have done. There are some people who are lucky enough to find their allergens that way, but don't count on that as an answer.

If you were diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis, make sure that you were already on a PPI (proton pump inhibitor, such as Prilosec, Protonix, Nexium, etc) before you got an endoscopy to rule out reflux as the cause. Sometimes acid reflux can cause lower #s (usually no more than in the 20s but sometimes a little higher) that might be misdiagnosed as EoE if you weren't already being treated for reflux. Really high counts are not from reflux. My son, for example, had over 100 eosinophils per HP (high power) field (in the biopsies when viewed under the microscope), which is quite high. He was already on a PPI, too. There should be no eosinophils present in a healthy esophagus, but there are usually some present in the rest of the GI tract.

If you are an adult with EoE in need of support, there is a Yahoo group called "Eosinophilgastro-Adult". For parents of children with EoE, there's "Eosinophilgastro".

I hope this helps.

http://www.apfed.org/



Eosinophilic esophagitis is an inflammatory condition in which the wall of the esophagus becomes filled with large numbers of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell.

The esophagus is a muscular tube that propels swallowed food from the mouth into the stomach. Esophagitis refers to inflammation of the esophagus that have several causes. The most common cause of esophagitis is acid reflux which most frequently results in heartburn, although acid reflux also can cause ulcers in the inner lining of the esophagus. Other less common causes of esophagitis include viruses (such as herpes simplex), fungi (such as Candida), medications that get stuck in the esophagus (such as the antibiotic, tetracycline), and radiation therapy (such as during treatment of lung cancer). Doctors believe that eosinophilic esophagitis is a type of esophagitis that is caused by allergy for two reasons. First eosinophils are prominent in other diseases associated with allergy such as asthma, hay fever, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis. Second, patients with eosinophilic esophagitis are more likely to suffer from these other allergic diseases. Nevertheless, the exact substance that is causing the allergic reaction in eosinophilic esophagitis is not known. The hallmark of eosinophilic esophagitis is the presence of large numbers of eosinophils in the tissue just beneath the inner lining of the esophagus.

Eosinophils are white blood cells (leukocytes) manufactured in the bone marrow and are one of the many types of cells that actively promote inflammation. They are particularly active in the type of inflammation caused by allergic reactions. Thus, large number of eosinophils can accumulate in tissues such as the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine, and sometimes in the blood when individuals are exposed to an allergen. The allergen(s) that causes eosinophilic esophagitis is not known. It is not even known whether the allergen is inhaled or ingested.

Eosinophilic esophagitis affects both children and adults. For unknown reasons, men are more commonly affected than women, and it is most commonly found among young boys and men.

This article primarily deals with the diagnosis and management of swallowing problems (dysphagia), the most common complication in adults with eosinophilic esophagitis.


Next: What are the symptoms of eosinophilic esophagitis?

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they usually prescribe nexium for this,by prescrip only,,drs from the tv stream pharma school offer just pills,with enough side effects to make a mules life miserable,,,,the causes my be viral,bacterial,reactions to antibiotics,thrush,,AND foods,ask you dr whether,in light of the articleabove saying 'the cause is unknown',this could be food allergy,,,,,,,,docs predicted reaction???,,'oh nope nope nope nope,nononono
no,certainly not,no way,,,m m m -m-m-m-,,,definitely not.

,why the hell not,,,,,drs are dense



no




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