Usefulness of Multichannel Intraluminal Impedance-pH metry in Patients with Suspected GERD Presenting with Typical or Atypical Symptoms

Han, Dae Hee; Lee, Joon Seong; Kim, Young Dae; Im, Hee Hyuk; Jung, Yun; Jung, In Seop; Ko, Bong Min; Hong, Su Jin; Ryu, Chang Beom; Kim, Jin Oh; Cho, Joo Young; Lee, Moon Sung; Shim, Chan Sup; Kim, Boo Sung

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the usefulness of multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH metry (MII-pH) as a diagnostic tool for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD): 1) the usefulness of MII-pH to increase the diagnostic sensitivity of GERD; and 2) to analyze whether various GERD symptoms were correlated with acid and nonacid reflux in patients with a positive symptom index (SI).
METHODS
We retrospectively compared the results of pH-metry and the results of MII-pH metry from the data of MII-pH in 74 patients with suspected GERD.
RESULTS
1) Twenty out of 74 patients were diagnosed with GERD by pH monitoring, and an additional 15 cases had a positive SI (> 50%). Out of the remaining 39 patients, a positive SI for nonacid reflux was present in nine patients. A total of 17 cases were added to the GERD diagnosis including eight patients who showed an increase in total bolus reflux time percentage by MII-pH. 2) Regurgitation was more commonly observed with acid reflux in 29 patients with positive SI, but heartburn and noncardiogenic chest pain were more commonly correlated to nonacid reflux.
CONCLUSIONS
Multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH metry is a sensitive method for the diagnosis of GERD and informs the correlation between symptoms and reflux.