Confocal Laser Microscopy in Non Erosive Reflux Disease

Overview

Heartburn or reflux disease affects about 20% of Americans. 50 - 70% of people who have endoscopy for reflux disease have a normal appearing esophagus. Confocal Laser Microscopy allows us to see changes in the cells not visable during routine endoscopy. Whe goal of this study is to identify the use of this new technique in diagnosing reflux in patients who have normal appearing esophagus.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) remains a major problem in the United States affecting about 20% of Americans. Upper endoscopy (EGD) is commonly used to diagnose and grade GERD based on mucosal breaks and erosions. It is now evident from multiple studies however that the majority of GERD patients (50-70%) have negative EGDs.These patients are refered to as "Non Erosive Reflux Disease" (NERD) patients.Confocal Laser Microscopy (CLM) is a new endoscopic technique that offers the advantage of detecting histologic changes during real time endoscopy and thus can diagnose NERD. We thus propose to study the sensitivity and specificity of CLM in predicting NERD. We hypothesize that CLM can reliably diagnose NERD in the appropriate clinical setting based on intrapapillary capillary loop patterns. This will be a pilot study after which a randomized trial will evaluate the reversibility of these changes after PPI therapy as seen by CLM

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Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes