Asthma and Churg-Strauss syndrome

We report the case of a 25-year-old woman with Churg-Strauss syndrome, the symptoms of which had first appeared soon after she began taking oral contraceptive at the age of sixteen. The clinical profile evolved rapidly to severe persistent asthma, nasal polyposis, perennial obstructive rhinitis, eosinophilia (peripheral/tissue) and mononeuritis. Churg-Strauss syndrome is the type of disease that demands early detection, accurate diagnosis, aggressive treatment and periodic monitoring. It should be considered in the differential diagnosis of moderate and severe persistent asthma. The case reported calls attention to possibility that there is a hormonal component and that the disease can present early onset.