Gastroesophageal reflux disease. Scintigraphic, endoscopic, and histologic considerations

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.