[Cardiac manifestations of the hypereosinophilia syndrome: a report on fifteen cases (author's transl)].

A retrospective study was conducted in fifteen patients with the hypereosinophilia syndrome to assess the cardiac manifestations of the affection. Clinical, electrical, and radiological findings, together with the results of ultrasonography (8 cases), hemodynamic tests (6 cases), and pathological examinations (7 cases) were used to classify the fifteen patients into four groups: 7 cases with endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF), 5 with non-obstructive cardiomyopathy (NOCM), 2 with pre-existing cardiopathies, and 1 with a normal heart. The manifestations in the 7 EMF cases varied according to the extent of the fibrosis present: 2 adiastolies, 3 valve incompetences, and 2 asymptomatic forms. Cardiac insufficiency can occur in the absence of fibrosis, pathological examination in one case demonstrating that it was due to a myocarditis, with infiltration of eosinophils and necrotic foci. The results of this study underline the close relationship between Loëffler's fibroplastic endocarditis and Davies' fibrous endomyocarditis. The presence of vascular lesions in the hypereosinophilia syndrome leads to difficulties in nosological distinction with some forms of necrotizing angitis especially Churg and Strauss' syndrome.