OCR The Yield of Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy英文电子书.pdf

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS The Yield of Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in Patients with Suspected Reflux-Related Chronic Ear, Nose, and Throat Symptoms Johan Poelmans, M.D., Ph.D., Louw Feenstra, M.D., Ph.D., Ingrid Demedts, M.D., Ph.D., Paul Rutgeerts, M.D., Ph.D., and Jan Tack, M.D., Ph.D. OBJECTIVES: It is well established that various ENT disorders and symptoms may be a manifestation of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Erosive esophagitis is considered a rare finding in ENT patients and therefore upper gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is not recommended in the diagnostic work-up. However, large prospective studies underscoring this policy are lacking. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence and severity of esophagitis in patients with suspected GERD-related chronic ENT symptoms. METHODS: Endoscopy was performed in 405 ENT patients with suspected GERD and 545 typical GERD patients. The presence of erosive esophagitis, Barretts esophagus, hiatal hernia, peptic ulcer, and Helicobacter pylori infection on biopsies was determined and compared with the results of a symptom questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of erosive esophagitis (52.3% vs 38.4%; P 0.05), mainly grade 1 (31.9% vs 22.7%; P 0.05), and of peptic ulcer (8.4% vs 4.3%; P 0.05) was signi