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Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Simultaneous Laryngopharyngeal and Conventional Esophageal pH Monitoring
Published on: December 14, 2020
[Multi-channel electrogastrography and autonomic nervous system function in patients with non-erosive reflux disease
Zhao-lu Ding1, Xiao-hong Xu, Zhi-feng Wang
1Department of Gastroenterology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, China.
Objective:
To investigate the gastric myoelectrical activity and autonomic nervous system (ANS) function in patients with non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) and reflux esophagitis (RE).
Methods:
42 patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), 21 with NERD and 21 with RE, and 20 healthy volunteers (controls) underwent multi-channel electrogastrography (MEGG) and electrocardiography simultaneously for 30 min in the fasting state and 60 min after a standard test meal. The MEGG parameters included dominant frequency (DF), dominant power (DP), normal percentage of 2 - 4 times/min gastric slow waves (N%), and percentage of slow wave coupling (%SWC). ANS was determined according to power spectra analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) which was conducted by using electrocardiogram recording, including the parameters of sympathetic activity, vagal activity, and sympathovagal balance ratio so as to evaluate the ANS function.
Results:
The DF levels of the NERD and RE patients and healthy volunteers after test meal were all significantly higher than those in fasting state (all P < 0.05). The %SWC levels of the 3 groups after test meal were all significantly lower than those when fasting (all P < 0.05), and the %SWC level of the NERD patients was significantly lower than that of the healthy volunteers in fasting state [70.5% (40.6% - 81.9%, 76.3% (66.4% - 91.4%), P < 0.05]. Test meal significantly increased the sympathetic activity and sympathovagal balance ratio of the NERD and RE patients and healthy volunteers (all P < 0.05), and the vagal activity levels of the 3 groups after test meal were all significantly lower than those when fasting (all P < 0.01). The sympathovagal balance ratio of the NERD group was significantly lower than that of RE group after meal [1.4 (0.8 - 2.5), 2.2 (1.3 - 4.4), P < 0.05].
Conclusion:
The spatial regularity of gastric slow waves and ANS function in NERD patients are significantly different from those in RE patients.
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