Pathophysiology, diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease.

Pathophysiology, diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol. 2020 Apr 07;: Authors: Savarino V, Marabotto E, Zentilin P, Furnari M, Bodini G, De Maria C, Tolone S, De Bortoli N, Frazzoni M, Savarino E Abstract Introduction: Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a highly prevalent, chronic, relapsing disorder, whose knowledge has increased in last years thanks to the advent of new sophisticated techniques, such as 24-hour impedance-pH monitoring and high-resolution manometry, for the study of esophageal functions.Areas covered: This review provides an overview of our advancements in understanding the complex pathophysiology, improving the diagnosis and defining the modern pharmacological therapeutic approach to GERD.Expert opinion: The growing clinical application of impedance-pH testing has allowed us to know the diversity of patients with non-erosive reflux disease (NERD), who nowadays represent about 70% of the whole population with reflux symptoms. We have realized that NERD has to be considered as an umbrella term covering various subgroups with different pathophysiology. The development of new impedance metrics, in particular mean nocturnal baseline impedance, seems to be promising in the improvement of the diagnostic process of this disease. There are no particularly innovative features in the pharmacological therapy of GERD, unless the interest towards drugs able...
Source: Pharmacological Reviews - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Authors: Tags: Expert Rev Clin Pharmacol Source Type: research