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Subject Area

Oncology

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objective This study aimed to evaluate the role of salivary pepsin level as a noninvasive marker for diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and its endoscopic severity. Background GERD is one of the most commonly encountered gastrointestinal diseases. Confirmation of the diagnosis mostly entails the use of invasive procedures. Salivary pepsin level has been discussed previously in studies of extraesophageal symptoms of GERD. Patients and methods This study was conducted on 50 patients with clinical and endoscopic evidences of erosive reflux disease (GERD group) versus 25 patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms not consistent with GERD and in whom endoscopic findings proved absence of GERD (non-GERD group). In addition, 20 healthy participants were selected as a control group. Patients and control were subjected to GERD Q questionnaire, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, and quantitative measurement of salivary pepsin using ELISA kits. Results There was a highly significant increase in the mean value of salivary pepsin in GERD group (88.64 ± 46.37 ng/ml) when compared with non-GERD (38.08 ± 35.57) and control group (18.65 ± 14.71) (P = 0.0008 and 0.001, respectively), whereas there was no significant difference (P = 0.226) between non-GERD and control group. There was a highly significant increase (P = 0.0008) in mean value of salivary pepsin in patients with GERD complicated with Barrett's esophagus (152.50 ± 27.12) when compared with patients with GERD without this complication (76.48 ± 38.70). Conclusion Salivary pepsin is a simple noninvasive marker for diagnosis of GERD and its severity.

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