Tummala V, Barwick K W, Sontag S J, Vlahcevic R Z, McCallum R W
Am J Clin Pathol. 1987 Jan;87(1):43-8. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/87.1.43.
Detection of intraepithelial eosinophils in esophageal mucosal biopsies has been suggested as histologic evidence of symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease in both children and adults. Previous studies have primarily examined symptomatic persons, and only one study included a comparison with normal controls. In the present study, the authors examined esophageal mucosal biopsies obtained by the hydraulic suction technic for the presence of intraepithelial eosinophils from 73 adult patients with subjective and objective evidence of GER disease and 12 asymptomatic adult volunteers in whom a series of esophageal function tests were normal. Intraepithelial eosinophils were identified in 23 (31.5%) of adult patients and in 4 (33.3%) of the asymptomatic volunteers. No clinical aspects in the GER patients correlated with the presence of eosinophils. By crude quantitation, rare eosinophils added little to more conventional assessment of histologic esophagitis and were present in one-third of normal subjects. The authors conclude that rare eosinophils in esophageal biopsies may not be a reliable criterion for the histologic assessment of GER disease.
食管黏膜活检中上皮内嗜酸性粒细胞的检测已被认为是儿童和成人症状性胃食管反流（GER）病的组织学证据。以往的研究主要针对有症状的人群，仅有一项研究纳入了与正常对照的比较。在本研究中，作者采用水力吸引技术获取食管黏膜活检样本，检测了73例有GER病主观和客观证据的成年患者以及12例无症状成年志愿者（其一系列食管功能测试均正常）的上皮内嗜酸性粒细胞情况。在成年患者中有23例（31.5%）发现上皮内嗜酸性粒细胞，在无症状志愿者中有4例（33.3%）发现。GER患者的任何临床特征均与嗜酸性粒细胞的存在无关。通过粗略定量，罕见的嗜酸性粒细胞对组织学食管炎的更常规评估贡献不大，且在三分之一的正常受试者中也有发现。作者得出结论，食管活检中罕见的嗜酸性粒细胞可能不是GER病组织学评估的可靠标准。
