© 2004 by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & British Society of Gastroenterology
COMMENTARY
Underestimating acid reflux
Are we underestimating acid reflux?
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr S J Spechler
Division of Gastroenterology (111B1), Dallas VA Medical Center, 4500 South Lancaster Rd, Dallas, Texas 75216, USA; SJSpechler@AOL.com
Have conventional pH monitoring techniques substantially underestimated the duration of acid exposure for the most distal segment of the oesophagus?
Keywords: lower oesophageal sphincter; acid exposure; oesophageal squamocolumnar junction; reflux oesophagitis
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
For a simple organ like the oesophagus, which functions primarily as a conduit, it is hard to imagine a more unpleasant neighbour than the stomach, a reservoir of concentrated acid constrained by a leaky valve. Studies using pH monitoring techniques developed in the 1970s have shown that the distal oesophagus of normal ambulatory individuals can be exposed to refluxed gastric acid (with pH <4) for up to 5% of a 24 hour monitoring period.1 Conventionally, oesophageal pH monitoring has been performed with the pH sensor positioned at a level 5 cm above the lower oesophageal sphincter (LOS). In a study reported in this issue of Gut, Fletcher and colleagues2 in Glasgow have found that conventional pH monitoring techniques have substantially underestimated the duration of acid exposure for the most distal segment of the oesophagus [see page 168].
To study acid exposure in the most
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Relevant Article
- Studies of acid exposure immediately above the gastro-oesophageal squamocolumnar junction: evidence of short segment reflux
- J Fletcher, A Wirz, E Henry, and K E L McColl
Gut 2004 53: 168-173.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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