Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Diagnosis by New Consensus in Clinical Practice: The Additional Value of Mean Basal Impedance.

BACKGROUND

Recently, Lyon consensus and ROME IV were published as there was a need to create a more objective evaluation for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in order to better predict treatment outcomes. However, with classical pH-impedance measures, some patients would still have diagnostic uncertainty, and new metrics, such as mean nocturnal basal impedance (MNBI), have emerged to corroborate with GERD diagnosis. The aim of the present study was to describe the prevalence of GERD, functional heartburn (FH), reflux hypersensitivity (RH), and undetermined diagnosis using current consensuses and to evaluate if MNBI could be considered a supportive measure for the diagnosis of GERD.

METHODS

Patients who underwent pH-multichannel intraluminal impedance (MII-pH) for suspected GERD between 2013 and 2018 were included. Subjects with previous diagnosis of GERD (e.g., esophagitis grade C or D according to Los Angeles classification, Barrett's esophagus, or peptic stricture), atypical symptoms, major esophageal motor disorder, eosinophilic esophagitis, or under proton pump inhibitor were excluded from the analysis.

RESULTS

We included 75 patients. The prevalence of GERD, FH, RH and undetermined diagnosis was 44%, 14.7%, 12%, and 29.3%, respectively. MNBI was lower in patients with GERD (GERD: 1,307.5 ± 817.9 Ω vs. FH: 3,039.6 ± 1,040.8 Ω, RH: 2,617.1 ± 1,342.2 Ω, undetermined: 2,351.9 ± 1,018.2, p < 0.001), although it was similar between patients with FH and RH (p = 0.44) or between undetermined diagnosis and FH/RH (p = 0.15). More patients with a GERD diagnosis had a MNBI under 2,292 Ω (GERD: 93.9% vs. non-GERD: 31.7%, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

In our study, using MII-pH criteria, less than half of the patients had a GERD diagnosis. MNBI showed additional value as another metric for the diagnosis of GERD.