Risk factors for the severity of erosive esophagitis in Helicobacter pylori-negative patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease.
BACKGROUND
The risk factors for the varying grades of erosive esophagitis (EE) severity could be better understood. For that reason. we evaluated the risk factors associated with EE in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease.


METHODS
We determined the presence and severity of EE (using the Los Angeles Classification) in patients with negative serology Helicobacterpylori who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy as part of screening in four prospective, multicenter, randomized, double-blind comparative trials of once-daily esomeprazole and omeprazole for the acute healing of erosive esophagitis. We also examined the baseline characteristics of enrolled patients, and identified risk factors for severe disease using a multivariable logistic regression model.


RESULTS
Erosive esophagitis was documented in 6709 patients of a total of 10,294 patients who underwent endoscopy: of these. 34% had grade A. 39% had grade B. 20% had grade C. and 7% had grade D disease. The majority of patients were male (61%) and Caucasian (93%) with a mean age of 46 years. In the regression model, the following were significant independent risk factors for severe (grades C and D) versus mild erosive esophagitis (grades A and B): severe heartburn (adjusted odds ratio 1.79); prolonged heartburn > 5 years in duration (1.16); obesity (1.21); the presence of hiatus hernia (2.13); male gender (1.97); and Caucasian ethnicity (1.53).


CONCLUSIONS
In this large sample of patients with predominantly H. pylori-negative gastroesophageal reflux disease, risk factors for severe erosive esophagitis were the duration and severity of heartburn, and obesity.
El-Serag
H B
HB
Gastroenterology and Health Services Research, Houston VA Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Texas 77030, USA. hasheme@bcm.tmc.edu
Johanson
J F
JF
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D004942:Esophagitis, Peptic / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology*; D004945:Esophagoscopy; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000150:complications / Q000382:microbiology*; D006356:Heartburn / Q000150:complications; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000150:complications; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors