A meta-analysis of the eosinophil counts in the small intestine and colon of children without obvious gastrointestinal disease

Abstract

<p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Background</span></span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the eosinophil counts in the small intestine and colon of children without obvious gastrointestinal disease</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">There are now a variety of viewpoints on eosinophil counts in the small intestine and colon of children without obvious gastrointestinal disease, and there are not many thorough assessments that are pertinent.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Methods</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A systematic literature search up to July 2022 was performed and 2378 related studies were evaluated. The chosen studies comprised 1800 children without obvious gastrointestinal disease participated in the selected studies' baseline trials; 607 of them were colonic eosinophilia, while 1193 were normal. </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Odds ratio (OR), and mean difference (MD)</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">&nbsp;with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">to assess the eosinophil counts in the small intestine and colon of children without obvious gastrointestinal disease </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">by the </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">dichotomous, and contentious </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">methods with a random or fixed effect model.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Results</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The colonic eosinophilia resulted in significantly higher cell counts in the duodenum and terminal ileum (MD, 9.66; 95% CI, 6.50-12.81, p&lt;0.001) compared to the normal for children without obvious gastrointestinal disease.</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">However, no significant difference was found between colonic eosinophilia and normal for children without obvious gastrointestinal disease </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">in </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">cell counts in the large intestine and the rectum (MD, </span></span><span dir="RTL" style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">1</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">3.25; 95% CI, 0.17-26.33, p=0.05).</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Conclusions</span></span></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The colonic eosinophilia resulted-in-significantly-higher-cell-counts-in-the-duodenum-and-terminal-ileum,-however,-no-significant-difference-was-found-</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">in-</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0000pt;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">cell-counts-in-the-large-intestine-and-the rectum compared to the normal for children without obvious gastrointestinal disease. The small sample size of 8 studies out of 15 and the small number of studies in certain comparisons calls for care when analyzing the results. </span></span></span></span></p>