Esophageal Pressure and Clinical Assessments in the Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Patients with Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease

Yung-An Tsou; Sheng-Hwa Chen; Wen-Chieh Wu; Ming-Hsui Tsai; David Bassa; Liang-Chun Shih; Wen-Dien Chang

doi:10.3390/jcm10225262

Esophageal Pressure and Clinical Assessments in the Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease Patients with Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease

J Clin Med. 2021 Nov 12;10(22):5262. doi: 10.3390/jcm10225262.

Authors

Yung-An Tsou^{1

2

3}, Sheng-Hwa Chen², Wen-Chieh Wu⁴, Ming-Hsui Tsai^{1

2}, David Bassa⁵, Liang-Chun Shih^{1

6}, Wen-Dien Chang⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 40402, Taiwan.
² Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan.
³ School of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan.
⁴ Gastro Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) Center, Yuan Sheng Hospital, Changhua 51053, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Biology, Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77707, USA.
⁶ Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Sport Performance, National Taiwan University of Sport, Taichung 404401, Taiwan.

Abstract

Laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD) might be associated with reflux symptoms, and its severity is correlated with the Reflux Symptoms Index. Diagnosis is often challenging because of a lack of accurate diagnostic tools. Although an association between LPRD and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) exists, the extent to which esophageal pressure changes in patients with LPRD with GERD has been unknown. Therefore, this study surveys the clinical assessments and extent of esophageal pressure changes in LRPD patients with various GERD severities, and compares esophageal sphincter pressures between ages, genders, and body mass index (BMI). This observational study assessed patients with LPRD and GERD. High-resolution esophageal manometry was used to gather data pertaining to the area pressure on the upper esophageal sphincter (UES) and lower esophageal sphincter (LES), and the correlation between such pressure and symptom severity was determined. We compared the esophageal pressure of different UES and LES levels in the following categories: gender, age, BMI, and GERD severity. We analyzed correlations between esophageal pressure and clinical assessments among 90 patients with throat globus with laryngitis with LPRD. LPRD was measured using laryngoscopy, and GERD was measured using esophagoscopy and 24 h PH monitoring. There were no significant differences in the clinical assessments among the four grades of GERD. The LPRD patients with serious GERD had a lower UES and LES pressure. The lowest pressure and longer duration of LES and UES were also observed among patients with LPRD of grade D GERD. No significant differences in UES and LES pressures among ages, genders, or BMIs were noted.

Keywords: esophageal pressure; gastroesophageal reflux disease; laryngopharyngeal reflux disease.