[Case and control study of atypical manifestations in gastroesophageal reflux disease]. / Estudio de casos y controles de manifestaciones atípicas en la enfermedad por reflujo gastroesofágico.

OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence of atypical symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in patients with esophagitis compared to controls. METHODS: We studied consecutive patients who underwent upper endoscopy between January and August of 1997. They were classified in two groups: a) Cases, patients with endoscopic diagnosis of reflux esophagitis, and b) Controls, patients without esophagitis nor typical symptoms of GERD. They answered a questionnaire to evaluate the presence of typical and atypical symptoms of GERD. RESULTS: There were 50 cases and 50 controls. There were no intergroups differences related to gender (p = 0.2), age (p = 0.4), smoking history (p = 0.7) or history of allergic diseases (p = 0.6). The atypical symptoms of GERD were more frequent in cases (66%) than controls (42%) (OR = 2.7%, 95% CI = 1.2-6, p = 0.02). The atypical manifestations more frequent in the cases were hoarseness (OR = 9.3, CI 1.1-77), thoracic pain (4.9, 1.7-14) and globus (2.8, 0.9-9). The presence of atypical symptoms was not associated to the degree of esophagitis (p = 0.7), intensity of typical symptoms (p = 0.2), gender (0.4) or age of patients (p = 0.2). CONCLUSION: Patients with reflux esophagitis have a higher risk to develop extraesophageal disorders of the pharynx, larynx and lungs.