| Characteristic | Normal epithelium (n = 44) | Inflamed epithelium (n = 24) | Barrett’s epithelium (n = 20) | p-value |
| Mean age (years) (SD) | 64 (13) | 64 (11) | 62 (10) | 0.88* |
| Male, n (%) | 43 (98) | 22 (92) | 20 (100) | 0.27† |
| Race/ethnicity, n (%) | 0.001† | |||
| White, non-Hispanic | 19 (43) | 10 (42) | 17 (85) | |
| Black, non-Hispanic | 19 (43) | 3 (13) | 2 (10) | |
| Hispanic | 5 (11) | 10 (42) | 1 (5) | |
| Asian | 1 (2) | 1 (4) | 0 (0) | |
| Mean BMI (kg/m2) (SD) | 28.6 (5) | 27.8 (5) | 27.1(4) | 0.32* |
| PPI use, n (%) | 16 (37) | 10 (42) | 15 (75) | 0.016† |
| Heartburn, n (%) | 16 (36) | 13 (54) | 11 (55) | 0.23† |
| Gastric juice pH (median and IQR) | 3.0 (2.0–5.8) | 2.0 (1.3–5.5) | 3.0 (2.0–6.0) | 0.72‡ |
| Inflammation score (median and IQR) | 2.0 (1.0–3.0) | 5.0 (1.5–7.5) | 4.0 (3.5–6.0) | 0.004§ |
| 0.013¶ |
*One-way ANOVA; †χ2 test; ‡Kruskal–Wallis test; §one-way ANOVA pairwise test: inflamed epithelium vs. normal epithelium; ¶one-way ANOVA pairwise test: Barrett’s oesophagus vs. normal epithelium.
BMI, body mass index; IQR, interquartile range; PPI, proton pump inhibitor.