J Korean Med Sci.  2010 Sep;25(9):1318-1322. 10.3346/jkms.2010.25.9.1318.

Differences in Clinical Characteristics between Patients with Non-Erosive Reflux Disease and Erosive Esophagitis in Korea

• Ha NR
• Lee HL
• Lee OY
• Yoon BC
• Choi HS
• Hahm JS
• Ahn YH
• Koh DH

• KMID: 1785911
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2010.25.9.1318

Abstract

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is caused by abnormal reflux of gastric contents into the esophagus. GERD can be divided into two groups, erosive esophagitis and non-erosive reflux disease (NERD). The aim of this study was to compare the clinical characteristics of patients with erosive esophagitis to those with NERD. All participating patients underwent an upper endoscopy during a voluntary health check-up. The NERD group consisted of 500 subjects with classic GERD symptoms in the absence of esophageal mucosal injury during upper endoscopy. The erosive esophagitis group consisted of 292 subjects with superficial esophageal erosions with or without typical symptoms of GERD. Among GERD patients, male gender, high body mass index, high obesity degree, high waist-to-hip ratio, high triglycerides, alcohol intake, smoking and the presence of a hiatal hernia were positively related to the development of erosive esophagitis compared to NERD. In multivariated analysis, male gender, waist-to-hip ratio and the presence of a hiatal hernia were the significant risk factors of erosive esophagitis. We suggest that erosive esophagitis was more closely related to abdominal obesity.

Keyword

Erosive Esophagitis; Non-erosive Reflux Disease

MeSH Terms

Adult
Alcohol Drinking
Body Mass Index
Esophagitis, Peptic/complications/*diagnosis
Female
Gastroesophageal Reflux/complications/*diagnosis
Gastroscopy
Hernia, Hiatal/complications
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Obesity/complications
Republic of Korea
Risk Factors
Sex Factors
Smoking/adverse effects
Triglycerides/blood
Waist-Hip Ratio

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