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A 50-year-old woman with allergic granulomatous angiitis (AGA) presented with an elevated serum interleukin-5 (IL-5) level upon admission to a hospital. Administration of prednisolone showed marked improvement of asthmatic symptoms, reduced eosinophil counts of peripheral blood, and normalized serum IL-5 levels. This is the first report describing an elevated serum level of IL-5 in AGA. The present findings suggest that IL-5 is involved in the pathogenesis of AGA.

Churg-Strauss syndrome, an uncommon condition, occurs even more rarely in association with pregnancy. One month postpartum, a 25-year-old Japanese woman was hospitalized for dyspnea, fever, diarrhea, and complaints of dysesthesia in the right lower limb and right lumbar and abdominal region. Marked eosinophilia was present. Symptoms of bronchial asthma had developed early in the pregnancy, which concluded with delivery of a healthy baby at 39 weeks of gestation. Churg-Strauss syndrome was diagnosed and prednisolone was administered with a good response leading to remission. Three years after the first pregnancy, low-dose steroid therapy was continued through another pregnancy. The patient delivered another healthy baby at 39 weeks of gestation, this time with no exacerbation of symptoms.