Successful pregnancy in a woman with cyclic angioedema and eosinophilia

Abstract

Background: Cyclic angioedema with eosinophilia is an unusual condition characterized by recurrent bouts of eosinophilia with edema, fever, and responsiveness to prednisone. To date, the prognosis of patients with this disease reported in the literature has been excellent.

Methods: In this paper, a young woman with this syndrome is described. Her course before, during, and after pregnancy are detailed. A review of the literature to date is provided.

Results: To our knowledge, this is the first patient with this syndrome to go through a successful pregnancy, despite continuing to experience cyclic edema with eosinophilia. The patient and the baby are both doing well postpartum, and the patient's steroids are currently being tapered slowly.

Conclusions: Successful pregnancy is possible in patients with cyclic edema and eosinophilia. The exact treatment for this syndrome is not clear; the process is responsive to steroids but the regimen for the steroids is not well defined. Future therapies with agents such as interferon alpha may be promising.