THE EFFECT OF CONCOMITANT GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX DISEASE ON CLINICAL COURSE AND LUNG FUNCTION IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE

Backgorund
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in modern society and can lead to the development of comorbidities. Among the last, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is frequently present, but often gets a close attention from doctors in the treatment of pulmonary patients. The aim of the current study was to determine the characteristics of clinical and lung disorders in the pathogenesis of COPD with concomitant GERD.

Material and methods
We examined 113 COPD patients with isolated COPD or with COPD and concomitant GERD. All the patients underwent spirography, endoscopy, radiological and pH-metric procedures.

Results
Many patients (95%) with concomitant pathology complained of heartburn, dysphagia, especially after meals, burning tongue, hoarseness and a lump in the throat. Among COPD patients without concomitant GERD, both clinical pulmonary manifestations met with almost the same frequency but were less pronounced (p>0.05). During the lung examination, we determined the level of FEV1, VC, FVC, FEF25-75 and FEV1/FVC, which differed significantly in COPD patients (p<0.05) compared to predicted normal values in human of the same sex, age, height and body weight. In the COPD with concomitant GERD cohort, a sharp decrease in spirography indices was found compared to patients with isolated COPD (p<0.001).

Conclusions
COPD patients with concomitant GERD had significantly greater extraesophageal manifestations and lung disorders compared with COPD patients without comorbidity.