The Prevalence of EoE in IBD Patients

Approximately 2% of patients with Crohn’s disease also have eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), while 1.6% of patients with ulcerative colitis have EoE.

In research presented during the 2022 American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) Annual Meeting in Charlotte, investigators from the Cleveland Clinic found 41,670 patients with EoE in a database of over 70 million individuals.

The study represents one of the first ever large sample population-based studies of the epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and EoE.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Khaled Alsabbagh Alchirazi, MD, Cleveland Clinic and Miguel Regueiro, MD, Chair of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, & Nutrition, Cleveland Clinic, explained what the results mean and how the data could be used to drive future studies.

Alsabbagh Alchirazi led the study and presented the data during the annual meeting.

The study comes just a few months after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved dupilumab (Dupexant) for the treatment of EoE, representing the first ever treatment for the rare disease.

Regueiro said it is worth exploring as to whether dupilumab could be a viable treatment option for patients with IBD, regardless of EoE status. He said while it is unknown whether this will be fruitful, it does warrant some research.