Abstract
In patients with functional upper gastrointestinal disorders such as gastroesophageal reflux disease and functional dyspepsia, the presence of symptoms is thought to occur in the absence of any organic diseases and the mechanisms behind this remain unclear. We therefore examined the relationship between stomach-related biomarker levels and symptoms. Twenty-four outpatients who had taken proton-pump inhibitors every day were enrolled in this study. The subjects consumed yogurt containing 109 colony-forming units of Lactobacillus gasseri OLL2716 (LG21) every day for three months. They underwent four clinical examinations in total. Each examination consisted of answering a questionnaire with a frequency scale for the symptoms of GERD (FSSG), and included measurements of the serum gastrin, ghrelin, and pepsinogens I and II levels. As a result, the FSSG score and the PGI value showed a decrease and an increase, respectively, after LG21 treatment when analyzed without age adjustment. A multiple regression analysis with additional adjustments for gender and age revealed a strong association between the PGI value and the FSSG symptom scores. Therefore either the PGI level itself or the factors regulating the PGI level might be involved in the etiology of these symptoms.
Highlights
In patients with functional upper gastrointestinal (GI) disorders such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and functional dyspepsia (FD), the presence of symptoms is generally thought to occur in the absence of any organic or systematic diseases that are likely to explain the symptoms
In order to evaluate the symptoms of GERD. This questionnaire comprises 12 questions; seven of which are related to gastroesophageal reflux such as “Do you get heartburn?”, “Do you sometimes subconsciously rub your chest with your hand?”, “Do you get heartburn after meals?”, “Do you have an unusual sensation in your throat?”, “Do some things get stuck when you swallow?”, “Do you get bitter liquid coming up into your throat?”, and “Do you get heartburn if you bend over?”; five of them were related to dysmotility-like dyspepsia such as “Does your stomach get bloated?”, Does your stomach ever feel heavy after a meal?”, “Do you ever feel sick after meals?”, “Do you feel full while eating meals?”, and “Do you burp a lot?”
A serum sample was prepared from whole blood and stored before the analysis at −25 °C for the determination of the serum gastrin, pepsinogen I (PGI), and pepsinogen II (PGII) levels
Summary
In patients with functional upper gastrointestinal (GI) disorders such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and functional dyspepsia (FD), the presence of symptoms is generally thought to occur in the absence of any organic or systematic diseases that are likely to explain the symptoms. Many of the GERD patients complaining of classic symptoms like heartburn have minimal evidence of esophageal mucosal injury the reflux of acidic contents in the esophagus is suggested to induce the symptoms [1]. We investigated the relationship between these biomarker levels and the symptoms considered to originate in the esophagus and stomach at several time points in each subject. We examined the relationship between the biomarker levels and the symptoms before and after probiotic treatment in each subject
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