Suazo J, Facha M T, Valdovinos M A
Departamento de Gastroenterología, Instituto Nacional de la Nutrición Salvador Zubirán Reimpresos, México, D.F.
Rev Invest Clin. 1998 Jul-Aug;50(4):317-22.
To study the prevalence of atypical symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in patients with esophagitis compared to controls.
We studied consecutive patients who underwent upper endoscopy between January and August of 1997. They were classified in two groups: a) Cases, patients with endoscopic diagnosis of reflux esophagitis, and b) Controls, patients without esophagitis nor typical symptoms of GERD. They answered a questionnaire to evaluate the presence of typical and atypical symptoms of GERD.
There were 50 cases and 50 controls. There were no intergroups differences related to gender (p = 0.2), age (p = 0.4), smoking history (p = 0.7) or history of allergic diseases (p = 0.6). The atypical symptoms of GERD were more frequent in cases (66%) than controls (42%) (OR = 2.7%, 95% CI = 1.2-6, p = 0.02). The atypical manifestations more frequent in the cases were hoarseness (OR = 9.3, CI 1.1-77), thoracic pain (4.9, 1.7-14) and globus (2.8, 0.9-9). The presence of atypical symptoms was not associated to the degree of esophagitis (p = 0.7), intensity of typical symptoms (p = 0.2), gender (0.4) or age of patients (p = 0.2).
Patients with reflux esophagitis have a higher risk to develop extraesophageal disorders of the pharynx, larynx and lungs.
