The CSS Association is a wonderful website with plenty of information on the subject with lots of resources and support groups - you can find them @ www.cssassociation.org
It's quite likely that you'd never heard of Churg-Strauss Syndrome until whatever happened to bring you to this site. Not really surprising considering that not only is it a relatively rare condition, but also one that has a complicated mix of symptoms and stages, that follow no specific pattern or order. Descriptions of Churg-Strauss Syndrome can also become mired in highly technical medical speak, however in layman's terms it is basically inflammation of blood vessels, often associated with asthma in many patients.
Churg-Strauss Syndrome has a number of symptoms, including weight loss, fatigue and fever; there can also be localised pain, depending upon where in the body is affected for example, inflammation of the lungs can lead to a cough, chest pain or shortness of breath. In general, Churg-Strauss Syndrome is suspected in patients with asthma, though further examination is needed, including blood tests and CT scans. Inflammation in localised areas such as the lungs can appear on chest x-rays.
Treatment usually involves trying to reduce the inflammation, often using a cortisone-related medication, and with the correct medication, it is possible to reduce the inflammation and in some cases, to achieve total inactivation.
Because the symptoms of Churg-Strauss are so wide, it's unlikely that this is a syndrome you are going to diagnose yourself, however it may be something you suspect in someone who has asthma and then moves on to show some of the many other symptoms associated with it. The best diagnosis will come from some form of biopsy, which should show a high number of the specific white blood cells that are associated with the condition around a blood vessel.
The causes of Churg-Strauss are unclear, though it is certain that it is a condition of the immune system, where the white blood cells, which normally fight off illness, start to attack healthy tissue. As a result, medication used to treat the condition focuses on calming down the immune system which has become over active. Better treatments are likely to come as research into Churg-Strauss syndrome improves - because of the rarity of the condition, there have been few patients to study and as yet, no cause realised. It is clear that although it may be genetic, it does not appear to be inherited. Another possible factor could be environmental conditions, which play a big part in other autoimmune conditions. It could also be triggered by other infections, particularly relevant as it involves an over active immune system. Research is looking into all these possibilities for a cause, which will assist in ensuring there is better treatment in the future for this quite rare condition with such a wide spectrum of symptoms.