title: Brief Questioning by Nursing Staffs before Endoscopic Examination May Not Always Pick Up Clinical Symptoms of Endoscopic Reflux Esophagitis.
abstract: The clinical features of patients reflux esophagitis without any symptoms have not been clearly demonstrated. This study evaluated the clinical features of patients with endoscopy-positive reflux esophagitis, who did not complain of symptoms, as detected by brief questioning by nursing staffs. Eight thousand and thirty-one patients not taking medication for gastrointestinal disease, were briefly asked about the presence of heartburn, dysphagia, odynophagia and acid regurgitation by nursing staffs before endoscopy for assessment of esophagitis utilizing the Los Angeles Classification. Endoscopically, 1199 (14.9%) patients were classified as positive for reflux esophagitis. The endoscope positive subjects who complain heartburn were 539/1199 (45.0%).The endoscope positive subjects who do not complain symptoms were 465 in 1199 positive reflux esophagitis (38.8%). We compared endoscopic positive subjects without any complain by brief question by nursing staffs to endoscopic positive subjects with heartburn. Male gender, no obesity, absence of hiatus hernia, and low-grade esophagitis were associated with endoscopy-positive patients who do not complain of symptoms. The results of this study indicated correct detection of clinical symptoms of reflux esophagitis might be not easy with brief questioning by nursing staffs before endoscopic examination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Saga Medical School, 5-1-1, Nabeshima, Saga 849-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Tooru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takashima
authors.forename: Kanako
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Megumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hara
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.forename: Tsukasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuroki
authors.forename: Chie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Furushima
authors.forename: Ruriko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wakeshima
authors.forename: Ryuichi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Iwakiri
authors.forename: Kazuma
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: Norie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Inoue