ABSTRACT

Background and Aim: Gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) affects more than 30% of the Asian population, and its symptoms are common. The high prevalence of atrophic gastritis in the Pakistani population is exacerbated by gastro esophageal reflux disease. The present study aims was to assess the high prevalence of gastro esophageal reflux symptoms in patients with both acute and no acute cough.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 426 consecutive patients who attended the General Medicine and Emergency department of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Hospital Rawalakot and Avicenna Hospital, Lahore from February 2021 to July 2021.  Informed consent in written form was taken from all the patients. Patients with partial gastrectomy previous history and user of antagonist H2-receptor, steroids, proton pump inhibitor (PPI), and other inflammatory drugs two months prior to the investigation were excluded. Helsinki Declaration was utilized for this study with ethical approval taken from the hospital ethics committee. SPSS version 24 was used for data analysis.   

Results: Of the total 426 patients, GERD diagnosed patients were 248 (58.2%) and 178 (41.8%) had respiratory symptoms. The prevalence of GERD symptoms was higher in respiratory symptoms patients compared to without respiratory symptoms patients (p-value=0.05). Out of 178respiratory symptoms patients, GERD symptoms were present in 71 (39.9%) of acute cough while 107 (60.1%) of non-acute cough while 86 (34.7%) of 248 had no respiratory symptoms.  The GERD development has no significant association with respiratory symptoms duration, however, patients having respiratory symptoms are at substantially elevated risk for GERD development.    

Conclusion: Our study found that respiratory symptoms patients are considerably more likely to develop GERD. GERD prevalence was similar in both acute and non-acute cough patients, implying that the presence of respiratory diseases is associated with the development of GERD regardless of the duration of respiratory symptoms.