Clinical characteristics of patients with eosinophilic esophagitis in the UK: a retrospective analysis of the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Database
Xu X, Maslova E, Kielar D, Kwiatek J, Chen S, Stirnadel-Farrant H, et al. Clinical characteristics of patients with eosinophilic esophagitis in the UK: a retrospective analysis of the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) Database. Poster number: 269. Presented at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI) Annual Meeting; 24–27 February 2023; San Antonio, TX: USA. 2023.
RATIONALE: Real-world data on UK patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) are limited. We analyzed demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms, and comorbidities in patients with incident (newly-diagnosed) EoE from a large UK database.
METHODS: Retrospective analysis of incident EoE patients identified in CPRD (Aurum) from 2014-2020. Characteristics from the 12-month pre-index period (index date: initial EoE diagnosis) are described overall and stratified by age at index: <12 (children), >_12-17 (adolescents) and >_18 years (adults). Statistics were descriptive.
RESULTS: Of 2,381 patients with incident EoE (70.1% male; median [IQR] age 40 [25] years), 165, 173 and 2,043 were aged <12, >_12-17 and >_18 years, respectively. Overall, 66.4% had >_1 pre-index symptom, the most common being dysphagia (40.0%) and acid reflux (21.6%). 15.1% had gastroesophageal reflux disease. Dysphagia was more common in adults (43.6%) than in children (11.5%) and adolescents (24.9%). Vomiting/nausea was the most common symptom in children (27.3%). Overall, 29.2% of patients had >_1 allergic comorbidity; asthma (23.8%) and atopic dermatitis (5.0%) were most common. Concomitant allergic diseases were more common in children and adolescents than adults. 61.0% underwent an upper GI endoscopy in the pre-index period.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with EoE in the UK have a high symptom burden pre-diagnosis, in line with findings from other countries, but lower allergic comorbidity. Symptoms differed with age. Allergic comorbidities were more common in children/adolescents, suggesting an association with EoE diagnosis likelihood. Patients frequently have >_1 endoscopy before a diagnosis is made, and there is an urgent need to increase awareness of EoE to avoid diagnostic delays.