Published online Jun 28, 2009. doi: 10.3748/wjg.15.2975
Revised: April 3, 2009
Accepted: April 10, 2009
Published online: June 28, 2009
Eosinophilic colitis (EC) is a rare form of primary eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease with a bimodal peak of prevalence in neonates and young adults. EC remains a little understood condition in contrast to the increasingly recognized eosinophilic esophagitis. Clinical presentation of EC is highly variable according to mucosal, transmural, or serosal predominance of inflammation. EC has a broad differential diagnosis because colon tissue eosinophilia often occurs in parasitic infection, drug-induced allergic reactions, inflammatory bowel disease, and various connective tissue disorders, which require thorough searching for secondary causes that may be specifically treated with antibiotics or dietary and drug elimination. Like eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease involving other segments of the gastrointestinal tract, EC responds very well to steroids that may be spared by using antihistamines, leukotriene inhibitors and biologics.