[Eosinophilic gastroenteritis with serosa involvement. A rare differential diagnosis of ascites]

A 21 year old caucasian male suffered for 14 days from cramping abdominal pain, associated with nausea and vomiting. 6 weeks later he was admitted to our hospital because of rapidly increasing ascites. Further examinations led to the following decisive findings: Marked eosinophilia in the white cell count; marked eosinophilia in protein rich ascitic fluid; infiltration of serosal layer with eosinophils; no evidence for parasites in blood, faeces and ascites in multiple probes; no evidence for malignant or rheumatoid disease. Histology and cytology of probes obtained at laparoscopy led to the diagnosis of eosinophilic gastroenteritis with ascites. After low dose prednisolone therapy we observed a complete relief of symptoms and ascites disappeared.