A case of severe eosinophilia in a preterm infant.

Abstract

Eosinophilia of prematurity is commonly seen in premature infants as a result of many causes, although a sustained or progressive form is uncommon. Different pathophysiological hypotheses include decreased circulating adrenal steroids and foreign antigen exposure. We present here a case of prolonged extreme eosinophilia in a preterm infant complicated by thrombocytopenia. The patient's eosinophil count reached 91.48 × 10(9)/L and remitted with nonspecific treatment. A comprehensive clinical, laboratory, and radiologic assessment is usually required in the context of a hypereosinophilic preterm infant to recognize the triggering etiology. Nonspecific treatment was the modality of choice because of unclear etiology in our case. Preterm infants with blood eosinophilia might not need immunomodulatory treatment despite extremely high absolute eosinophil counts.