Symptom scale reflects GERD endoscopic severity
- Published date :
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May 4, 2009
MedWire News: Japanese researchers have identified a symptom assessment scale that reflects the endoscopic severity of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
The Frequency Scale for Symptoms of GERD (FSSG) includes 12 symptoms that Japanese GERD patients complain most often of, explain Kazuma Fujimoto (Saga Medical School) and co-workers.
These include not only ‘heartburn’ and an ‘acid taste’ but also dyspeptic symptoms such as a ‘heavy stomach’ and ‘feeling full quickly.’
The team compared the accuracy of the FSSG with the Questionnaire for the Diagnosis of Reflux Esophagitis (QUEST), one of the most used questionnaires in Japan, in predicting endoscopic findings among 475 patients with untreated symptoms of upper abdominal pain.
Endoscopic findings revealed functional dyspepsia in 52.2% of patients, duodenal ulcer in 7.6%, gastric ulcer in 7.8%, and GERD in 32.4%. GERD consisted of 10.1% grade M, 20.2% Grade A plus B, and 2.3% Grade C plus D.
The FSSG and QUEST did not significantly differ in sensitivity, specificity or accuracy for any condition. However, while the FSSG score rose with increasing endoscopic severity of GERD, there was no correlation for the QUEST score.
The FSSG total score was inferior to QUEST for distinguishing GERD from the other conditions of functional dyspepsia, duodenal or gastric ulcer. But when only scores for five questions concerning acid reflux-related symptoms were analyzed separately from the seven involving dyspeptic symptoms, the FSSG was able to distinguish between GERD and other conditions.
“When those symptom groups are evaluated separately, the FSSG can be used broadly in the assessment of symptoms of upper abdominal pain and discomfort, including functional dyspepsia and GERD,” the authors write in the journal Gastroenterology.
They conclude: “In patients with GERD, the FSSG score correlated with the endoscopic severity, suggesting that the FSSG could be used to assess the efficacy of treatment for GERD.”
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