[Distribution of eosinophilic granulocytes in the gastrointestinal tract in EGPA].

BACKGROUND

Gastrointestinal involvement is common in eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA) and has a poor prognosis.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of our study was to determine the density of eosinophils in the gastrointestinal tract that should be considered pathological in patients with EGPA, and how clinically and prognostically relevant intramucosal eosinophil accumulation is in patients with EGPA.

METHODS

Forty-nine subjects were included in the study: 18 with EGPA (9 women) and as a control group 31 with other rheumatological inflammatory diseases. Two hundred and forty-four biopsies from the gastrointestinal tract of the study participants were analyzed.

RESULTS

Histologically, there was no significant difference in eosinophil counts between patients with EGPA and the control group; however, there was an increased density when macroscopic gastrointestinal inflammation was already present.

CONCLUSIONS

Biopsies from macroscopically unremarkable mucosa appear to have limited diagnostic utility.