Eosinophilic Esophagitis Symptom Scores Are High in Children Without Eosinophilic Disease

OBJECTIVES The Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) Symptom Score version 2 (PEESSv2.0) is an EoE-specific validated metric for disease monitoring, but its use has not been explored outside of EoE. Our aim was to determine if PEESSv2.0 scores differentiate between children with EoE and non-EoE esophageal dysfunction undergoing initial esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD). METHODS A prospective cohort study of pediatric subjects was conducted. Children ages 1-18 undergoing initial EGD for esophageal dysfunction were enrolled. Demographics, clinical history, and child self-report and parent-proxy report PEESSv2.0 symptom scores were collected at the time of EGD. Esophageal biopsies were reviewed, and EoE was defined as >15 eosinophils/high powered field (hpf) seen in any level of the esophagus. Non-EoE was defined as