Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and radiologic examination were performed in 101 patients with symptoms strongly suggestive of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease. Hiatus hernia (HH) was found in 50 patients diagnosed by radiography or endoscopy, or both, in 22, 19, and 9 patients respectively. Severe endoscopic esophagitis (grades III and IV) was found more often (p less than 0.05) in the patients with HH than in those without. The same was true for the early positive timed acid perfusion tests (p less than 0.02). Furthermore, the patients with HH more often had reflux by the standard acid reflux test (42 of 50 versus 28 of 51; p less than 0.01), gastroesophageal scintigraphy (47 of 50 versus 40 of 51; p less than 0.05), and radiography (20 of 50 versus 2 of 51; p less than 0.001) than the patients without HH. The results show that severe GER disease can occur without an associated HH and indicate that patients with symptoms of GER disease and associated HH are likely to have a more severe GER disease than those without HH.

Radionucleotide scintigraphy and esophagoscopy with biopsy were carried out in 101 patients with symptoms strongly suggestive of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease. GER was visualized by scintigraphy in 86.1% of the patients. Endoscopic and histologic esophagitis were found in 68.1% and 58.4% patients, respectively, whereas both examinations taken together showed evidence of esophagitis in 82%. Histologic evidence of esophagitis was found in nearly all patients with severe endoscopic changes and in 43.7% patients with no endoscopic abnormality. Scintigraphic reflux was demonstrated more frequently (p less than 0.05) in the patients with severe endoscopic esophagitis (97.5%) than in those with no or only mild endoscopic changes (78.6%). Scintigraphic reflux was found in 91.5% and 78.5% of the patients with and without histologic evidence of esophagitis (p = 0.07). Fifteen of the 18 patients (83.3%) without endoscopic and histologic abnormalities in the esophagus had scintigraphic evidence of reflux. The present study strongly supports the clinical significance of scintigraphy in GER disease and confirms that esophageal biopsy specimens increase the sensitivity of endoscopic evaluation.

No abstract

The comparative efficacy of a 12-week acute treatment with 800 and 1600 mg cimetidine daily and the effectiveness of a 400-mg single-dose maintenance treatment versus placebo lasting 6 months were studied in a double-blind fashion in 30 and 24 patients, respectively, with gastroesophageal reflux (GER) disease. Cimetidine in a dose of 800 or 1600 mg daily resulted in a significant symptomatic improvement and a decrease in the extent of endoscopic esophagitis. An improvement in the gastroesophageal sphincter function during treatment was suggested by a significant decrease in the frequency of reflux, as evaluated by isotope scintigraphy. No significant differences were found between the two doses of cimetidine. The overall initial improvement tended to be maintained during maintenance treatment, but no significant differences were found between cimetidine and placebo. The present study thus supports the use of 800 mg of cimetidine daily for short-term treatment of GER disease but provides no support for maintenance treatment with a low dose. The study further suggests that cimetidine treatment, by reducing the tendency to GER, may induce long-lasting remission of the disease.

No abstract