GASTROINTESTINAL PRESENTATION OF CHURG-STRAUSS-SYNDROME

Gastrointestinal involvement is frequent in patients with Churg Straus s Syndrome: clinical symptoms (abdominal pain, diarrhea or bleeding) r ange from 44 to 89%, pathologic involvement of the bowel from 33 to 92 %, and gastrointestinal death (bleeding or perforation), described in 8% of cases, is the fourth leading cause of death after heart, CNS and renal failure. In spite of this wide-spread digestive involvement, ga strointestinal presentation has never been described. We present a 56 year old man with Churg Strauss Syndrome, where eosinophilia, diarrhea and gastrointestinal bleeding appeared three years before asthma. Thi s is probably the first description of gastrointestinal presentation o f Churg Strauss Syndrome.