Beige Mucosa Reflecting Active Sites of Eosinophilic Esophagitis

Abstract

We evaluated a 30-year-old woman with a 7-year history of eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) with an initial complaint of moderate dysphagia. She gradually recovered after receiving proton pump inhibitors and oral budesonide. Only proton pump inhibitors were continued as a maintenance therapy until she developed very mild dysphasia 2 months earlier. Although endoscopy using white light imaging revealed characteristic findings of EoE, such as furrows and rings, with unclear images (Figure A), narrow-band imaging (NBI) revealed beige mucosa regions more clearly (Figure B). Magnified endoscopy using NBI revealed dot-shaped intrapapillary capillary loops and the absence of subepithelial vessels in the beige mucosa (Figure C). Target biopsied beige mucosa specimens revealed numerous intraepithelial eosinophils with basal layer hyperplasia and dilated intercellular spaces, reflecting active sites of EoE, whereas in nonbeige mucosa, normal squamous epithelium with few eosinophils was observed (Figure D). A recent study revealed that the loss or thinning of the superficial differentiated cell layer due to EoE activity allows 415-nm light to contact the hemoglobin component, resulting in a beige color change under NBI (Ayaki M, et al. J Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2022). The presence of beige mucosa under NBI in EoE patients, especially in cases without prominent EoE characteristic findings in white light imaging, indicates a suitable biopsied site for correct EoE diagnosis along with its histological activity.