Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Noncardiac Chest Pain with Reflux Esophagitis in Korea

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Noncardiac chest pain (NCCP) is substernal, squeezing chest pain, unrelated to the cardiac problem. Our study aimed to define the prevalence and clinical characteristics of reflux esophagitis in NCCP patients in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed medical records of patients who visited Department of Cardiology, St. Paul's Hospital due to chest pain and had normal coronary arteriography and who had received endoscopy within 6 months. Patients diagnosed with peptic ulcer or gastric cancer were excluded. The patients were classified into two groups according to their endoscopic results; the reflux esophagitis group and the control group. RESULTS: Two hundred seventeen NCCP patients were enrolled and 96 patients (44.2%) were diagnosed with reflux esophagitis 68 patients (31.3%) with minimal change esophagitis; 26 patients (12.0%) with Los Angeles (LA) grade A; 2 patients (0.9%) with LA grade B. There were no patients with severe erosive reflux disease. There were no significantly different characteristics in the reflux esophagitis group and the control group. CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of reflux esophagitis in NCCP patients in Korea was 44.2%. Most patients had mild reflux esophagitis.