Prevalence of pH-documented laryngopharyngeal reflux in Chinese patients with clinically suspected reflux laryngitis.
OBJECTIVE
Laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) is one of the main factors behind different laryngeal pathology according to the Western literature. Literature reported that the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) in Chinese population was considerably lower than that in Western countries. To date, however, there is no study to evaluate the prevalence of pH-documented LPR in the Chinese ethnicity.


METHODS
We thus recruited 28 consecutive Chinese patients with reflux symptoms including globus, throat discomfort, throat clearing, chronic cough, or burping lasting more than 1 month in the preceding 1 year, together with stroboscopic evidence suggestive of reflux laryngitis according to the reflux finding score in our study. All patients underwent thorough head and neck examination and transnasal endoscopic assessment. The prevalence of pH-documented LPR and GERD was then documented using ambulatory 24-hour pH biprobe study.


RESULTS
Six (21%) of the 28 patients had pH-documented LPR. Four (14%) of the 28 patients had GERD with 3 of them having concomitant LPR. Only burping was associated with pH-documented LPR (P < .05). No relationship was observed between pH-documented LPR and other factors, including age, sex, other reflux symptoms except burping, and the reflux finding score.


CONCLUSIONS
Chinese patients do have and present with symptoms of extraesophageal reflux, and we observed a lower prevalence of pH-documented LPR in Chinese patients with clinically suspected reflux laryngitis compared with white patients.
Lam
Paul
P
Department of Surgery, Division of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, The University of Hong Kong Medical Centre, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Wei
William Ignace
WI
Hui
Yau
Y
Ho
Wai-kuen
WK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006723:Hong Kong / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D007827:Laryngitis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007828:Laryngoscopy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric