Review article: diagnosis and clinical investigation of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease: a European view

Abstract

In Western populations, many individuals with symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) do not bother to seek medical attention because their symptoms are mild and acceptably controlled by self-medication. Among those who do consult physicians, only a minority present with the classical clinical symptoms of heartburn and regurgitation: more often the pattern is a nonspecific combination of upper gastrointestinal complaints that do not permit confident clinical diagnosis. Oesophagitis is now found in less than 50% of GERD patients and those without oesophagitis are sometimes said to have 'non-erosive reflux disease'. If a patient's clinical history is inadequate for diagnosis and the oesophageal endoscopic appearances are normal, ambulatory pH monitoring may be required if the diagnostic uncertainty is to be resolved. Despite initial enthusiasm, the 'Proton Pump test' for GERD has proved unreliable and has fallen from favour. Intraluminal impedence measurement is currently considered a research tool only. Most European gastroenterologists acknowledge the occurrence of 'atypical' presentations of GERD, including noncardiac chest pain, asthma and hoarseness (laryngitis), though confirmation of GERD as the cause of such symptoms in individual patients is often difficult.