title: Diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease using a new questionnaire.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  An early and accurate evaluation by a general practitioner is needed to screen out non-gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) patients. A recent questionnaire (QUEST) highlighted problems with specificity and complexity, so the aim of the present study was to design a simplified questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  When admitted to hospital to undergo an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy for suspected GERD, 333 patients completed a 50-item questionnaire requiring 'yes/no' answers to different combinations of questions relating to symptoms of upper gastrointestinal tract conditions (e.g. GERD, ulcers and functional dyspepsia) and psychosomatic symptoms. The endoscopic diagnosis was then correlated with the rate of positive answers to each question.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on the analysis of the 50 items, the 8-10 questions most often answered affirmatively by each of the GERD and non-GERD groups were chosen for the simplified questionnaire. Three draft questionnaires were compiled. After calculating the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy in relation to the diagnosis of GERD and other conditions, it was found that questionnaire B (selection of persons answering 'yes' to at least one of questions 1-5 and exclusion of persons answering 'yes' to at least three of questions 7-10) had a high sensitivity, high specificity and low false positive rate.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A novel questionnaire was developed. It was designed to detect the symptoms of GERD while simultaneously excluding non-GERD patients. This simplified nine-item simplified questionnaire had a sensitivity of 79.8%, a specificity of 53.6% and an accuracy of 63.4%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Endoscopy and Endoscopic Surgery, Gunma University Hospital, Gunma, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimoyama
authors.forename: Motoyasu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kusano
authors.forename: Sayaka
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sugimoto
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kawamura
authors.forename: Masaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maeda
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Minashi
authors.forename: Shikou
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kuribayashi
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Higuchi
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zai
authors.forename: Kyoko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ino
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horikoshi
authors.forename: Fumitaka
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Moki
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Munetoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Toki
authors.forename: Tsuneo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohwada
authors.forename: Masatomo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires