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Demography and treatment response in patients with predominant non-erosive reflux disease or functional dyspepsia

Miwa H, Haruma K, Sakamoto S, Sanada K, Hiroi S, Kinoshita Y

Journal of gastroenterology and hepatology, 2015

1,546 participants

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Non-erosive reflux disease (NERD) and functional dyspepsia (FD) share some common features, and the appropriateness of managing these diseases independently has been questioned. A post-hoc subgroup analysis of the LEGEND study was performed to compare demographics and treatment response between patients with NERD and patients with FD.

METHODS: Patients with reflux and dyspepsia symptoms who had no endoscopic evidence of mucosal breaks and/or erosions were included and divided into groups with predominant NERD (n = 1546) or FD (n = 614). Patients received lansoprazole for 4 weeks, and their symptoms were evaluated using questionnaires.

RESULTS: FD patients were significantly younger than NERD patients (54 vs 60 years), more likely to have a body mass index 60% of both patients reported an improvement in reflux symptoms and in most dyspepsia symptoms. The improvement rate for reflux symptoms was lower in FD patients than in NERD patients (P < 0.05), whereas the improvement rate for dyspepsia symptoms did not differ between patient groups.

CONCLUSION: Although no clinically significant differences in pathophysiology exist between NERD and FD, there are some between-group differences in demographic characteristics and improvement rates for reflux symptoms after treatment with lansoprazole. It remains to be discussed whether it is necessary to make a strict differential diagnosis between these two conditions.

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