[Eosinophilic oesophagitis in bronchial asthma]

Combination of bronchial asthma and gastrointestinal pathology is frequently encountered in clinical practice. Clinical symptoms of this condition are highly diversified and gastrointestinal diseases play an important role in exacerbation of bronchial asthma. The prevalence of allergic diseases has recently become rampant. Eosinophilic oesophagitis is worth of special attention because its histological criteria, unlike clinical ones, are well defined. They include chronic immune antigen-mediated inflammatory oesophageal disease with pronounced intraepithelial eosinophilic infiltration and clinical symptoms resulting from oesophageal dysfunction that resemble manifestations of gastroesophageal reflux disease but fail to respond to antireflux and antacid therapy. Many specific and practical aspects of the problem remain to be elucidated. The poor awareness of clinicians of this disease hampers its adequate diagnostics and treatment. In order to revise and optimize the former diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm., an interdisciplinary expert group was set up in 2010 constituted by specialists of the American College of Gastroenterology, American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, and Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Results of the work of this group together with the literature data on eosinophilic esopahgitis are discussed in the present review.