Eosinophilic Esophagitis: Epidemiology, Clinical Features and Allergies in the Pediatric Population of Puerto Rico

Abstract

Purpose: Describe the demographic characteristics, clinical features and atopic profile of pediatric patients diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis. Methods: Cross sectional study in which 41 records of patients diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis by endoscopic and histological findings of biopsies. We conducted an evaluation of age and sex distribution, profile of symptoms and atopic history of families and patients. Environment and food allergy testing of patients were done. Data analyzed. Results: In 41 patients, 53.6% were male and 46.4% were female. The median age of the sample was 8 years old. The largest age group was 5-10 years old. The most common presenting symptoms were abdominal pain with 56% followed by epigastric pain in 34% and gastroesophagic reflux in 20% of cases. Vomiting was more frequent in children of less than 4 years of age. 80% of patients presented at least one type of allergy. There was a strong family history of allergies and most patients were allergic to environmental allergens, mostly dust mites. Food allergies were present in 15% of cases mostly common to milk, egg and wheat. Conclusion: In our population, there was a male predominance as in previous studies in literature. Also most common symptoms were epigastric and abdominal pain. Allergies were prevalent in a great proportion of patients in our study, but there was a predominance of environmental allergies over food allergies as described in literature. Food allergies are outgrown by 5 years of age and that may be the reason of the shifting of prevalence from food allergies to environmental allergies in these population of patients.