Biopsy specimens and tissues obtained at necropsy from two women who died after developing the Churg-Strauss syndrome were analysed to see whether granulomas in these patients contained activated eosinophils or secreted eosinophil cationic proteins, or both. Immunocytochemical studies with monoclonal antibody EG2 showed large amounts of eosinophil cationic protein and eosinophil protein-X (whic...

Sirs, Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) is a rare disorder characterized by asthma, eosinophilia and systemic vasculitis (1). Three different phases can usually be recognized in CSS: asthma and atopic allergies such as rhinitis may precede of months, and sometimes of several years, the development of an eosinophilic infiltrative disease with eosinophilic pneumonia or gastro-enteritis followed by the...

During the first half of this century, several authors reported a variant of a small vessel vasculitis that appeared similar to the then recognized polyarteritis nodosa. The condition was distinguished by a significant atopic component, in the form of allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma, and hypereosinophilia (1). Such patients frequently had a poor prognosis, with many patients dying as a resu...

Churg-Strauss syndrome is a small and medium vessel vasculitis that is also known as allergic granulomatous angiitis. It most commonly presents with an asthma like symptoms. It was first described in Mount Siani Hospital, New York in 1951 by Jacob Churg and Lotte Stauss and was recognised after the study of a series of 13 patients who had asthma, eosinophilia, granulomatous inflammation necroti...

A 28-year-old woman with a history of asthma and recent deep venous thrombosis presented with fever, chest pain, and peripheral eosinophilia. The patient was subsequently diagnosed with Churg-Strauss syndrome and HIV infection, representing to our knowledge only the second case of this association. Rheumatologic manifestations of HIV may precede clinical signs of infection. This is significant ...

In 1951 the pathologists Churg and Strauss identified 13 patients who presented with a clinical syndrome characterised by asthma, hypereosinophilia, and evidence of vasculitis aVecting a number of organs. The three main histological features found on pathological examination of these cases were extravascular granulomas, tissue eosinophilia, and necrotising vasculitis (fig 1). Most of these pati...