ABSTRACT
Objective To study community morbidity of gastroesophageal reflux cough (GERC),and then establish its procedure of diagnosis. Methods For the patients with chronic cough, on the basis of inquiring medical history and physical examination, chest radiograph, induced sputum, pulmonary ventilation function and airway hyperresponsiveness, blood eosinophilic, IgE,allergens skin test, nose, throat examination,sinus X-ray or pharyngoscope etc was managed. On the basis of the results,patients suspecting GERC was screened out, and then RDQ was performed, extra-esophageal symptoms related performance was inquired and scores were recorded. The patients with scores ≥ 12 were diagnosed as GERC; the patients with scores ＜ 12 were performed diagnosing treatment with proton pump inhibitor (PPI),and patients with positive results were diagnosed as GERC. The materials was analyzed statistically. Results The patients with chronic cough were 430 cases,and the community morbidity of GERC was 22.79%(98/430). RDQ ≥12 scores was 68.37%(67/98),and RDQ ＜ 12 scores was 31.63%(31/98).There was significant difference in extra-esophagus manifestation (P ＜0.01);26 cases with RDQ ＜12 scores were diagnosed as GERC (83.87%),and the rate of GERC in chronic cough was 21.63% (93/430). Conclusions RDQ is a favourable screening test in diagnosing GERC. PPI diagnosing treatment has high sensibility in GERC. It is necessary to establish community diagnosis procedure.