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The Diagnosis of Esophageal Eosinophilia is Not Increased in the Summer Months

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Abstract

Smaller studies have suggested seasonal variation of the diagnosis of eosinophilic esophagitis with more patients being diagnosed in the aeroallergen season. We evaluated a large group of adult patients for a seasonal variation of the diagnosis of symptomatic eosinophilic esophageal infiltration. We performed a retrospective review of adult patients from a large Eosinophilic esophagitis database at the Mayo Clinic Rochester. We only included patients from three states in the upper Midwest, who had 15 or more eosinophils per high-power field on esophageal biopsy, symptomatic dysphagia, and were seen, in our Gastroenterology Clinic between 2000 and 2008. Clinical data were abstracted and the month of diagnosis was determined. The Rayleigh circular test and the Chi-square goodness-of-fit test were used to detect seasonality of symptomatic esophageal eosinophilia diagnosis and seasonality corrected for esophagogastroduodenoscopy monthly volume. The diagnosis of symptomatic eosinophilic esophageal infiltration was made in 372 patients. The mean number of eosinophils was 39.6 per high-power field. The December/January and May/June periods seem to have an increased presentation rate (p = 0.014). Of those tested, reactions to any aeroallergen was present in 69 % (48/70), reactions to >4 aeroallergens in 47 % (33/70) and reactions to any food allergen in 63 % (50/80) of patients. There was no evidence of monthly concentration of symptomatic esophageal eosinophilia diagnosis in the subgroups of patients with any positive aeroallergen, >4 positive aeroallergens, or history of atopy. The diagnosis of symptomatic esophageal eosinophilia is not made more frequently in the summer months.

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Abbreviations

EoE:

Eosinophilic esophagitis

HPF:

High-power field

EGD:

Esophagogastroduodenoscopy

PPI:

Proton pump inhibitor

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Conflict of interest

None of the authors declare any conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Allergic Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Martha K. Elias

  2. Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Mayo Building 9E, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN, 55905, USA

    Jana Kopacova, Amindra S. Arora, David A. Katzka, Lori A. Kryzer, Magnus Halland & Jeffrey A. Alexander

  3. Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Ross A. Dierkhising & Felicity T. Enders

  4. Division of Anatomic Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Thomas C. Smyrk

  5. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia

    Nicholas J. Talley

Authors
  1. Martha K. Elias
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  2. Jana Kopacova
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  3. Amindra S. Arora
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  4. Ross A. Dierkhising
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  5. Felicity T. Enders
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  6. David A. Katzka
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  8. Magnus Halland
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  11. Jeffrey A. Alexander
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey A. Alexander.

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Research was conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

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Elias, M.K., Kopacova, J., Arora, A.S. et al. The Diagnosis of Esophageal Eosinophilia is Not Increased in the Summer Months. Dysphagia 30, 67–73 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-014-9574-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-014-9574-1

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