Esophageal eosinophilia in pediatric patients with cerebral palsy

OBJECTIVE To describe the clinical picture, test results, and clinical evolution of patients with cerebral palsy associated with diagnosis of eosinophilic esophagitis, monitored at tertiary centre. METHODS Cross-sectional, retrospective and descriptive study that evaluated the medical records data of pediatric patients with diagnosis of cerebral palsy and eosinophilic esophagitis in a tertiary center of pediatric gastroenterology between August 2005 and August 2013. RESULTS Seven out of 131 patients with cerebral palsy had the diagnosis of eosinophilic esophagitis. The mean age at diagnosis of eosinophilic esophagitis was 52.3 months and the mean number of eosinophils in esophagus was 35 per high-power field. Symptoms more frequent were recurrent vomiting and disphagia. Endoscopic alterations found were mucosal thickening, vertical lines, mucosal opacificacion and white plaques. CONCLUSION The frequency of eosinophilic esophagitis found was higher than in general pediatric population. The investigation of eosinophilic esophagitis should be done regularly in those patients, once this entity could overlap other gastrointestinal diseases.