Heartburn, the main symptom of gastrooesophageal reflux disease (GORD), might be expected to occur infrequently in achalasia, a disorder characterised by a hypertensive lower oesophageal sphincter (LOS) that fails to relax. Nevertheless, it is often described by patients with achalasia. The medical records of 32 patients with untreated achalasia who complained of heartburn, and of 35 similar pa...

BACKGROUND Patients with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) frequently report that meals high in fat worsen heartburn. Nevertheless, studies to determine whether high fat meals promote gastro-oesophageal reflux have produced conflicting and equivocal conclusions. PATIENTS AND METHODS To determine, alternatively, whether fat in the small intestinal lumen intensifies the perception of hea...

Severity and frequency of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) related symptoms are associated with impaired health-related quality of life (HRQL). This study evaluated the association between baseline heartburn severity and endpoint HRQL of patients treated for heartburn and the relationship between complete resolution of heartburn symptoms and HRQL outcomes after controlling for baseline se...

The symptoms in a group of 80 patients with a pure sliding hiatus hernia were investigated using the pyloric regulation test (Capper, Airth, and Kilby, 1966). It was found that there was a high correlation between the symptoms of heartburn and the reflux of duodenal barium into the stomach.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a complex disorder that is characterized by abdominal pain and altered bowel habit, and often associates with other gastrointestinal symptoms such as feelings of incomplete bowel movement and abdominal bloating, and extra-intestinal symptoms such as headache, dyspareunia, heartburn, muscle pain, and back pain. It also frequently coexists with conditions that ma...

OBJECTIVE Psychosocial stressors have been associated with exacerbations of symptoms in functional and inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. The present longitudinal study tests the general hypothesis that life stressors can exacerbate symptoms in patients with chronic heartburn. METHODS Sixty subjects with current heartburn symptoms were recruited by community advertisement a...

BACKGROUND To assess symptom relief in patients with heartburn following treatment with esomeprazole 40 mg daily. METHODS Patients with heartburn (for > or = 6 months) were assessed in this double-blind, multicenter study. After a 3-day single-blind placebo run-in, 440 patients were randomized to esomeprazole 40 mg o.d., esomeprazole 20 mg b.i.d. or placebo for 14 days. Heartburn symptoms wer...

BACKGROUND For many patients, current treatments do not adequately resolve heartburn in nonerosive reflux disease (NERD). OBJECTIVE To compare vonoprazan and placebo with respect to the frequency and severity of heartburn in patients with NERD. METHODS This Phase III, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multicenter study included patients in Japan aged ≥20 years with Grade N o...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the effects of Helicobacter pylori infection and its eradication on heartburn and gastro-oesophageal reflux. DESIGN Cross sectional study, followed by a randomised placebo controlled trial. SETTING Seven general practices in Bristol, England. PARTICIPANTS 10,537 people, aged 20-59 years, with and without H pylori infection (determined by the (13)C-urea breath tes...