Application of radionuclide gastroesophageal reflux imaging in patients with chronic bronchitis and asthma

: To determine the relationship between gastroesophageal reflux (GER) and pulmonary diseases, we studied 29 chronic bronchitis, 32 asthmatic patients, and 9 control subjects. GER was diagnosed by esophageal endoscopy and gastroesophageal scintiscanning. Evidence of GER in the chronic bronchitic patients was 51.74%; in the asthmatics it was 37.5%; and no GER was confirmed in the control subjects. Gastroesophageal scintiscan had 100% sensitivity, but only 68.42% specificity. The mechanism whereby reflux triggers pulmonary problems was investigated by using the scintiscan for pulmonary aspiration, but no pulmonary aspiration was detected in all subjects. Pulmonary function tests did not show any differences between patients with or without reflux (P > 0.05). Thus, our results show that GER is common in chronic bronchitics and asthmatics, which indicates that there is some relationship between GER and chronic bronchitis as well as asthma.