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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

Simultaneous Laryngopharyngeal and Conventional Esophageal pH Monitoring
Published on: December 14, 2020
Patients with throat symptoms on Acid suppressive therapy: do they have reflux?
Abraham Khan1, Ilseung Cho, Morris Traube
1Department of Medicine, Center for Esophageal Disease, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to characterize the reflux events in patients with laryngeal symptoms unresponsive to proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy.
Background:
Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is commonly implicated as the cause of laryngeal symptoms.
Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed the pH/impedance records of 21 patients evaluated for persistent throat symptoms despite PPI therapy. They were compared to 30 others with typical reflux symptoms despite medication.
Results:
Five of 21 (24%) patients in the "throat group" had normal reflux values, 13 (62%) continued to have abnormal acid reflux, and three (14%) had abnormal nonacid reflux but normal acid reflux while on medication. These results did not differ from those with typical symptoms unresponsive to medication.
Conclusion:
In patients with chronic laryngeal symptoms despite PPI therapy, a substantial minority have no reflux at all, but the majority have abnormal amounts of acid reflux despite their taking PPI medication.
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