Evaluation of Mast Cell and Eosinophil Count in Duodenal Mucosa- A Study on 69 Functional Dyspepsia Cases from Bangladesh

The exact cause of functional dyspepsia is not known. This study was designed to investigate the association between duodenal infiltration of immune-mediating cells, namely eosinophils and mast cells with functional dyspepsia. Total of 69 patients presenting with symptoms of functional dyspepsia and matched healthy 42controls were included in this cross-sectional study. Tissue from duodenum was taken from both patients and controls, and the number of eosinophils and mast cells per five high power fields were counted. ‘t' test and chi square tests were done to find out the association of immune-mediating cells with functional dyspepsia. p value <0.05 was taken as significant. Duodenal eosinophil count ranges from 1-92 with mean 21.59 in cases and from 3-51 with mean 14.90 in controls. Eosinophil count was abnormally high among 29 (42.02%) and 08 (19.02%) among cases and controls, respectively, and the difference was significant (P=0.013).Mast cell density was seen among 56 cases and 23 controls from the same sample. Mast cell per 5 high power fields varied from 1-139 (mean 20.0536) and 3-57 (mean 20.86) were found in cases and controls groups, respectively (P=0.627).This study showed that functional dyspepsia is associated with a significant increase of eosinophils count in duodenum, but no significant association could be identified between of mast cell count in duodenum and functional dyspepsia.