Comment to “Predictors of clinical response of acid suppression in Chinese patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease”

Abstract Background Up to 40% of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease fail to respond to proton pump inhibitor therapy. Aims To determine predictors of clinical response of proton pump inhibitor therapy. Methods Consecutive patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease were enrolled prospectively. All patients underwent upper endoscopy and 24-h multichannel intraluminal impedance and pH monitoring before receiving esomeprazole 20 mg b.i.d. for 2 months. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine the independent predictors of clinical response to proton pump inhibitor therapy. Results A total of 204 patients with typical reflux symptoms were recruited and screened. Among them 153 patients (mean age 46.3 ± 10.6 years, 51.0% female) completed all the examinations and were assigned to proton pump inhibitor therapy. Ninety-five patients (62.1%) responded to acid suppression after 2 months. Multivariate logistic analysis showed that the predictor for response was pathological distal esophageal acid reflux ( P  = 0.001). The factors associated with proton pump inhibitor therapy failure were the presence of irritable bowel syndrome alone ( P  = 0.006), depression ( P  = 0.005), and overlap of irritable bowel syndrome and functional dyspepsia ( P  = 0.002). Conclusions The clinical response of acid suppression on gastroesophageal reflux disease could be predicted by clinical and pH parameters rather than impedance data.