ABSTRACT
Food-related diseases are clinical response(s) to a given food (or foods) that are governed by an aberrant immune response. A new group of diseases associated with aberrant responses to food, the eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases (EGIDs), has also become increasingly recognized. EGIDs manifest as vague gastrointestinal complaints that occur in the setting of dense gastrointestinal mucosal eosinophilia. Eosinophilic esophagitis is the most common manifestation of the EGIDs, occurring in 1–4 persons per 10,000 people in the US The downstream impact of chronic eosinophilic inflammation has focused on esophageal remodeling. Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is a rare disease that is characterized by a wide variety of vague intestinal symptoms and histological evidence of gastrointestinal eosinophilia. Eosinophilic gastroenteritis has three forms: mucosal, muscular, and serosal disease. A smaller proportion of patients have muscular disease characterized by vomiting and bloating, suggestive of intestinal obstruction.
