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Updated: Aug 6, 2025
Author Spotlight: Investigating the Pathophysiology of Eosinophilic Esophagitis
Published on: May 10, 2024
Baseline Peripheral Eosinophil Count Independently Predicts Proton Pump Inhibitor Response in Eosinophilic
Mayssan Muftah1,2, Kenneth Barshop2,3, Walker D Redd2,3
1Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endoscopy, Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Goals:
To assess the predictive value of baseline peripheral absolute eosinophil counts (AECs) for proton pump inhibitor (PPI) response in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE).
Background:
PPI leads to histologic remission in ~50% of EoE patients, although there are few distinguishing clinical features between PPI-responsive (PPI-r-EoE) and nonresponsive (PPI-nr-EoE) diseases. Peripheral eosinophilia is present in ~50% of EoE cases and is associated with eosinophil density on esophageal biopsy and worse clinical outcomes. The association between peripheral eosinophilia and PPI-responsiveness in EoE remains unclear.
Study:
This is a retrospective cohort study of adult EoE patients at a tertiary center between 2012 and 2016. All patients underwent twice daily PPI trials for ≥8 weeks followed by repeat esophageal biopsies and were classified as PPI-r-EoE or PPI-nr-EoE based on histologic response (<15 eosinophils/high power field). Baseline peripheral AEC was obtained within 1 month before index endoscopy. Analyses were performed using Fisher exact/Student t test (univariate) and logistic regression (multivariable).
Results:
One hundred eighty-three patients (91 PPI-nr-EoE and 92 PPI-r-EoE) were included. Mean peripheral AEC was higher among PPI-nr-EoE patients (0.41 vs 0.24 K/µL, P = 0.013). Baseline peripheral eosinophilia (>0.5 K/µL) was more prevalent among patients with PPI-nr-EoE (70.4% vs 45.5%, P = 0.023) and a history of food impaction (51.9% vs 23.7%, P = 0.0082). On multivariable analyses, peripheral eosinophilia remained an independent predictor for PPI response (adjacent odds ratio = 2.86, CI: 1.07-7.62, P = 0.036) and food impaction (adjacent odds ratio = 2.80, CI: 1.07-7.35, P = 0.037).
Conclusions:
Baseline peripheral eosinophilia independently predicts PPI nonresponse and food impaction in EoE patients. Peripheral AEC may help therapy selection in EoE and prevent delays in achieving histologic remission.
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