Eosinophilia as an important indicator of hookworm infectionin our study

Objective: Eosinophilia is commonly reported to occur in hookworm infection. Hence adetailed study was doneto highlight the importance of eosinophilia as an important indicator of hookworm infection diagnosed by doing upper gastro intestinal endoscopy.
Methods: A study of 1137 patients who had undergone upper gastro-intestinal endoscopyfor a period of four years and eight months from May 2009 to December 2013 was carried out. In each of these 1307 patients, the first and second part of duodenum were carefully examined to find out the presence of hookworms. In all the patients found to have hookworms in duodenum, investigations were done to know about the presence or absence of eosinophilia and the presence of severe eosinophilia. The results were found as given below.
Results: Out of these  1137patients, 14 patients found to have hookworms in duodenum while doing upper gastro-intestinal endoscopy were taken into consideration for our study. Out of these14 patients with hookworms in duodenum, as many as 10patientswithhookworms in duodenum were found to have eosinophilia [71%]. Severe eosinophilia was found in 4 out of 10patients with eosinophilia (40%). 4 patientsdid not have any eosinophilia [29%].
Conclusion: Hence, eosinophilia occurs commonly in patients with hookworm infection Severe eosinophilia also occurs in significant number of patients with hookworm infection. Hence eosinophilia and severe eosinophilia is an important indicator of hookworm infection.