The clinical features of patients
reflux esophagitis without any symptoms have not been clearly demonstrated. This study evaluated the clinical features of patients with endoscopy-positive
reflux esophagitis, who did not complain of symptoms, as detected by brief questioning by nursing staffs. Eight thousand and thirty-one patients not taking medication for
gastrointestinal disease, were briefly asked about the presence of
heartburn,
dysphagia, odynophagia and
acid regurgitation by nursing staffs before endoscopy for assessment of
esophagitis utilizing the Los Angeles Classification. Endoscopically, 1199 (14.9%) patients were classified as positive for
reflux esophagitis. The
endoscope positive subjects who complain
heartburn were 539/1199 (45.0%).The
endoscope positive subjects who do not complain symptoms were 465 in 1199 positive
reflux esophagitis (38.8%). We compared endoscopic positive subjects without any complain by brief question by nursing staffs to endoscopic positive subjects with
heartburn. Male gender, no
obesity, absence of
hiatus hernia, and low-grade
esophagitis were associated with endoscopy-positive patients who do not complain of symptoms. The results of this study indicated correct detection of clinical symptoms of
reflux esophagitis might be not easy with brief questioning by nursing staffs before endoscopic examination.