Stomach pain leads to discover of high eosinophil count

When my daughter(16 and healthy) continued to complain of on again off again stomach pains for almost 2 years and being treated by general practioneer, I decided to take her to a gastro doctor. With the first blood test they discovered a high eosinophil count and reordered the test again. When it came back they told me because of how high it was they did not think it was allergies but probably a parasite.  I was told the normal range was 0 to 5 and hers was 35. She had an chest xray,ultrasound, endoscope, and colonoscopy w/biopsies. All came back negative for parasites. She has no signs of eczema, arthritis, hay fever or drug interaction. The only thing they did find through all these tests was that she had a small hiearnal(SP?) hernia and that shouldn't cause the count.  Now they have taken more blood for a smear test. What I would like to know is if this test comes back high too, what questions should I ask? Should I seek help with another type specialist? what else could cause a high count?

[CalGal]

Have your doc check for the presence of celiac disease. It's not a usual correlation with celiac, but high peripheral eosinophilia can be found in some with unexplained pain due to celiac problems. Cross-check the probably negative biopsy for celiac - if it was done - with both a genetic test (allele) and a fecal antibody test.

[monty15400]

I posted a very similar story about my husband.  High eosinophil count (up to 48% at one time) and all biopsies have come back negative.  All stool samples negative but they did do a 2nd deeper biopsy in the endoscope and found eosinophils within several areas of his GI tract.  Have your doctor look into eosinophilic gastroenteritis also....or eosinophilic esophagitis.  This is where they are going with us but 2 1/2 weeks of Prednisone isn't cutting it. They think it's caused by food allergies.  Have your daughter tested by an allergist to be sure.  I hope we can all find some answers!

[lawson3]

my son has been diagnosed with ee. His biopsy  eosinophilic count was 60 in his esophagus and eosinophilic blood count was11. we are checking allergies, but does any one know what else could cause this to be high? the food allergies they say he has don't seem to bother him. He vomits & has belly pains for no ryhme or reason.

[CTK67]

Your child most likely has eosinophic gastroenteritis.  All of the symptoms point to EG.  I was diagnosed with EG at age 10...I'm now in my 40's. I had terrible stomach pains and my blood counts were substantially off.  I was diagnosed from everything to Crones to Celiac.  When a specialist finally determined it was EG, I took a 6 month round of steroids.  My hemoglobin increased, my stomach problems went away, and my eo's went to a normal range (0-4).  More and more doctors are becoming aware of EG, but most are not.  Hopefully your child will not have to go through a two year battery of tests like I did.  I took cromilyn sodium internally through my teens and it managed my EG effectively.  As an adult, I still battle increased eosinophil counts and I have to go in for an iron drip every 1-2 years to get my hemoglobin back up.  As an adult, I live pretty normally.  Of course my job does not involve anything labor intensive to the body.  As you may know, eo's go to the site of any trauma.  If I use a hammer for several hours, it will make my hands and forearms swell up.  My advice would be to go see a specialist who knows what EG is.  Best of luck.