Abstract
Churg-Strauss syndrome (CSS) is a rare systemic disease, characterized by bronchial asthma, hypereosinophilia, and necrotizing vasculitis of small-and medium-size vessels with extravascular eosinophilic granulommas. While, in most cases, it is the lungs, peripheral nervous system, and skin, which become affected, involvement of the heart, gastrointestinal system, kidneys, and the central nervous system is associated with a very poor prognosis.
The onset of vasculitis is usually preceded by bronchial asthma by several years. This case report describes the course of hospitalization of a 37-year-old patient, admitted for symptoms of myocarditis rapidly developing into severe heart failure.
Based on other symptoms and examinations, CSS was diagnosed four days after hospital admission; despite aggressive therapy, heart failure worsened progressively to cardiogenic shock. Multiorgan fail-ure developed, caused at least partly by specific-organ vasculitis.
Despite aggressive management of systemic disease and its organ complication, the patient died on day 7 post-hospitalization from refractory shock and multiorgan failure. This case report presents CSS as a rare but serious disease, which has to be considered in patients with a history of asthma, myocarditis, and hypereosinophilia.