[Structural changes in the gastric and duodenal mucosal capillaries in asthma].

Morphological examination of microcirculatory bed vessels in the gastric and duodenal mucous membranes was performed in asthmatic patients. The gastroduodenal area showed signs of capillary dysfunction and a vascular component of mucosal remodeling, like bronchial wall remodeling in asthma.

[Comparative morphology of the gastric mucosa in asthmatic patients using inhaled glucocorticosteroid therapy].

The immunomorphological characteristics of the gastric mucosa were evaluated and analyzed in patients with asthma of varying severity who received or did not receive inhaled or oral glucocorticosteroid therapy and in the control group. Immunohistological examination and morphometric analysis were used to study inflammatory infiltration in fundic mucosal biopsy specimens from patients with and without asthma. There were crucial immunomorphological differences between the examined patient groups and signs of the gastroprotective effect of inhaled glucocorticosteroids used in the basic therapy of asthma on the gastric mucosa. There was evidence that it is urgent to prevent erosive and atrophic gastritis and other inflammatory stomach diseases in asthma.

[Eosinophilic esophagitis in an asthmatic patient].

The paper contains the results of clinical and morphofunctional examinations of a patient with eosinophilic esophagitis complicated by esophageal stenosis and detected in the presence of controlled mild persistent asthma and food allergy. The endoscopic and morphological diagnostic criteria pathognomonic for this disease have been confirmed. The immunohistochemical study of esophageal mucosal biopsy specimens revealed the specific features of the composition of an infiltrate, which account for the early development of fibrosis and permit eosinophilic esophagitis to be referred to as special immunocompetent diseases.

[Eosinophilic oesophagitis in bronchial asthma].

Combination of bronchial asthma and gastrointestinal pathology is frequently encountered in clinical practice. Clinical symptoms of this condition are highly diversified and gastrointestinal diseases play an important role in exacerbation of bronchial asthma. The prevalence of allergic diseases has recently become rampant. Eosinophilic oesophagitis is worth of special attention because its histological criteria, unlike clinical ones, are well defined. They include chronic immune antigen-mediated inflammatory oesophageal disease with pronounced intraepithelial eosinophilic infiltration and clinical symptoms resulting from oesophageal dysfunction that resemble manifestations of gastroesophageal reflux disease but fail to respond to antireflux and antacid therapy. Many specific and practical aspects of the problem remain to be elucidated. The poor awareness of clinicians of this disease hampers its adequate diagnostics and treatment. In order to revise and optimize the former diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm., an interdisciplinary expert group was set up in 2010 constituted by specialists of the American College of Gastroenterology, American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, and Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition. Results of the work of this group together with the literature data on eosinophilic esopahgitis are discussed in the present review.