Tu1173 – Esophageal Mucosal Integrity is Unchanged in Patients with Functional Heartburn and Reflux Hypersensitivity

Untangling Nonerosive Reflux Disease From Functional Heartburn

“…81 The MI pattern along the esophageal axis is significantly different in patients with GERD (ERD or NERD) or eosinophilic esophagitis compared with patients with FH and controls. 81,82,84 Patients with NERD tend to have a lower MI (ohms) closer to the squamocolumnar junction, which increases with distance away from the squamocolumnar junction (GERD pattern), whereas patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) have a low MI throughout the esophagus (EoE pattern), and patients with FH are similar to controls with a higher MI (ohms) throughout the esophagus. 81,85 This MI pattern has been shown to have higher specificity (95%) and positive predictive value (96%) compared with wireless pH monitoring (64% and 40%, respectively) for identifying patients with erosive esophagitis.…”

“…85 Furthermore, patients with NERD have a different mucosal impedance contour compared with patients with FH and RH. 84 Although the technique is not available yet for use in clinical practice, future studies focusing on obtaining normative data will be helpful in identifying differences in patients with FH, RH, and normal healthy controls.…”