ASSESSMENT OF SPIROMETRY IN GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX DISEASE(GERD) ASSOCIATED ASTHMA PATIENTS.

Introduction: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) can cause several esophageal complications, as esophagitis, ulceration, stricture, hemorrhage, and Barrett’s esophagus. Though, the associated problems with GERD have expanded to extra esophageal sites. Chronic cough and asthma are two clinical problems caused or triggered by GERD. Spirometric changes among GERD associated cough and asthma still a topic of ongoing research. Aim of the study: to assess the spirometric parameters of GERD associated cough and asthma patients in relation to different clinical aspects of the disease including body mass index (BMI), disease duration, presence or absence of symptoms as well as endoscopic findings. Patients and methods: 90 subjects of either sex with a mean age of 40.5±12 year are included in the study, 55 GERD associated cough and asthma patients served as test group while the remaining 35 subjects served as control group, each patient, each patient underwent spirometry and gastric endoscopy during the period from September 2015 to March 2016. Results: Spirometric data of the control group were within the normal predicted range (80-120%) thus excluding the possibility of any asymptomatic obstructive airway disease. Whereas, the measured spirometric parameters (forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second ratio (FEV1%), peak expiratory flow (PEF), and forced mid expiratory flow(FMF) are significantly reduced in the test group with a clear restrictive pattern among the overweight subjects. Furthermore, neither the presence nor duration of symptoms affected the spirometric picture of the GERD associated cough and asthma subjects, unlike those with positive endoscopy findings who revealed significant obstructive pattern when compared to those with negative endoscopy findings. Conclusions: GERD associated cough and asthma patients with positive endoscopy findings showed obstructive pattern of spirometry irrelevant to the presence or absence of symptoms or duration of the disease.