University of Utah engineers mapped white blood cells called eonsinophils and showed an existing diagnostic method may overlook an elusive digestive disorder that causes swelling in the esophagus and painful swallowing.
By pinpointing the location and density of eosinophils, which regulate allergy mechanisms in the immune system, these researchers suggest the disease eosinophilic esophagitis, or EoE, may be under- or misdiagnosed in patients using the current method, which is to take tissue samples (biopsies) with an endoscope.
These findings are published as the cover article in the September 2012 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Despite the limitations of current detection methods for EoE, the study authors say biopsies remain the current standard of care, but the engineers are working toward new diagnostic methods that could be available in five years.