Steroids vs Dietary Therapy to Treat Eosinophilic Esophagitis
Steroids vs Dietary Therapy to Treat Eosinophilic Esophagitis
A recent study by Peterson et al. evaluated the effectiveness of an elemental diet in a small group of adults. They found that 50% of adults responded histologically to the diet with eosinophil counts less than 5 eos/hpf, and 72% had less than 10 eos/hpf, with eosinophil levels on average dropping from 54 to 10 after the diet. Interestingly, patients did not demonstrate symptomatic improvement, but that may be due to limitations in the dysphagia assessment tool used in this study. The authors also suspected that the limited efficacy of elemental diet in this study compared with pediatric studies might have resulted from poor adherence to the diet in their adult patient population.
Effectiveness of Elemental Diets in Adults
A recent study by Peterson et al. evaluated the effectiveness of an elemental diet in a small group of adults. They found that 50% of adults responded histologically to the diet with eosinophil counts less than 5 eos/hpf, and 72% had less than 10 eos/hpf, with eosinophil levels on average dropping from 54 to 10 after the diet. Interestingly, patients did not demonstrate symptomatic improvement, but that may be due to limitations in the dysphagia assessment tool used in this study. The authors also suspected that the limited efficacy of elemental diet in this study compared with pediatric studies might have resulted from poor adherence to the diet in their adult patient population.
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