[Histological criteria of esophagitis in the gastroesophageal reflux disease. Reevaluation of the sensitivity of the esophageal 24-hours pHmetry].

Little change was observed in the histological criteria of reflux esophagitis since the studies of Ismail-Beiji, Pope (1970) and Weinstein (1975). The 24-hour esophageal pHmetry has been proposed as a high sensitivity method in diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease patients. In this study we selected 35 patients with histological esophagitis and submitted them to 24-hour esophageal pHmetry. We determined histological differences according to reflux pattern, endoscopic esophagitis grades and age. The sensitivity of 24-hour esophageal pHmetry was 60.0% in our patients. There are higher histological alterations in patients with more severe patterns of reflux (supine and combined) and significant difference (P < 0.05) in observed quantitative exocytosis between moderate and severe endoscopic esophagitis. There are no difference between histological esophagitis criteria and age groups.