A 24-year-old man with asthma and bouts of epigastric pain, nausea, and vomiting

A 24-year-old man was diagnosed with eosinophilic gastritis. Eosinophilic gastritis is inflammation of the stomach involving the infiltration of eosinophils, a type of white blood cell. The patient was admitted to the hospital with nausea and stomach pain after undergoing treatment for a hernia. He had been treated for asthma with corticosteroid drugs since childhood and ha experienced occasional difficulty in swallowing and nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain after meals for a number of years. Examination of the patient's gastrointestinal tract did not reveal any abnormalities. A tissue biopsy from his gastrointestinal tract, however, showed that he had allergic eosinophilic gastritis that may have been caused by food allergies. He was treated with prednisone for two weeks, and maintained on oral cromolyn sodium. His symptoms subsided and he gained weight.