[Eosinophilia-myalgia: new syndrome]

The eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome is a newly recognized illness that has been associated with the consumption of tryptophan products. We describe the clinical and histopathological findings and the results of biochemical analyses of tryptophan metabolism in patients with this syndrome and the toxic-oil syndrome which took place in 1981 in Spain. Symptoms and laboratory findings are similar. Chronic phase of EMS is characterised by long-term disability, sclerodermatous skin thickening, sensorimotor polyneuropathy and severe episodic myalgias. The development of the syndrome may result from a confluence of several factors including the ingestion of tryptophan, exposure to agents that activate indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase, and possibly, impaired function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis.