- Article
- Source: Campus Sanofi
- May 19, 2025
Measures of Disease Severity in Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE)
Peak esophageal intraepithelial eosinophil counts
Most studies use peak esophageal intraepithelial eosinophil counts (eosinophils per high-power field, or EOS/HPF) to determine histologic outcome, using both percent change in peak EOS/HPF as well as proportion of patients achieving a treatment response, as shown below.4
How treatment responses are classified4
- <1 EOS/HPF
- (Normal biopsy) Considered a complete histological remission
- ≥1 to <15 EOS/HPF
- (Reduced eosinophilia) Considered the histologic response threshold
- ≥15 EOS/HPF
- (Persistent eosinophilia) Considered a non-response
Peak EOS/HPF is the most common histologic measure of disease severity4
<1 complete normalization
Normalized enrichment score
The Normalized Enrichment Score (NES) is an additional assessment to confirm the diagnosis using gene expression of interest in eosinophilic esophagitis compared with healthy controls.5
How NES is assessed
The EoE diagnostic panel, or EDP (shown below), is a molecular diagnostic test that differentiates patients with eosinophilic esophagitis from normal controls based on 94 EoE genes; a heatmap shows which gene transcripts are upregulated (red) relative to normal controls (blue).5
EoE Diagnostic panel heatmap5
- Patients with EoE
- Normal controls
NES scores appear to normalize in EoE patients after successful treatment6
EoE-HSS Composite score
The Eosinophilic Esophagitis Histologic Scoring System (EoE-HSS) is a scoring system that measures histologic changes in the esophagus beyond eosinophil count, including barrier function and remodeling, grading 8 features of eosinophilic esophagitis to quantify frequency, severity, and extent of abnormalities.7
How NES is assessed
Pathologists score histological degree of abnormality (grade) and histological extent of pathologic severity (stage) using a 4-point scale for each feature (0=normal; 3=most severe or extensive). The maximum possible grade or stage score for each biopsy is 24.7
EoE-HSS Composite scores are more predictive of treatment response than eosinophil count alone4,7
- 0 (normal)
- 24 (most severe or extensive)
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