Abstract

Background: Gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) is aspectrum of disease with classic symptoms of heart burn and acid regurgitation, at one end, without any evidence of esophageal mucosal injury and erosive esophagitis, complications of Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma at other end. Obesity is widely regarded as a pandemic with potentially disastrous consequences for human health. To date, many studies have reported on the association of obesity with gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD), In light of this, we conducted this study to examine the association of obesity and erosive GERD. Objective: to assess the correlation of endoscopic severity of erosive gastro esophageal reflux disease (GERD) with body mass index (BMI).Design: cross sectional analytic study. Place and duration of study: Baghdad teaching hospital/Baghdad from April 2010 to February 2011. Patient and method: 100 untreated Patients with erosive GERD, on endoscopic examination, had been presented with typical symptom of GERD (heart burn and acid regurgitation). Classification of erosive GERD severity had been done according to Savary-Miller classification system. Body mass index (BMI)was calculated as body weight in kilogram (KG) divided by square of the body height in meter (m2). Patients were analyzed by using (SPSS.17) soft ware. Statistical evaluation using Spearman correlation coefficient ( r) test ( which measures how well the relationship between two variables can be described by a monotonic function). P value <0.05 statistically significant. Results: The mean BMI of patient’s group who had grade 1 GERD (48 patients) was 25.09 kg/m2 ± 4.248 SD , and of those with grade 2 GERD (36 patients) BMI was 34.45 kg/m2 ± 4.665 SD , while those with grade 3 GERD (14 patients) BMI was 38.55 kg/m2 ± 4.245 SD and finally of those with grade 4 GERD (2 patients) BMI was 40.55 kg/m2 ± 4.879 SD, with significant statistical P value 0.000 measured by spearman correlation coefficient (r) test. This finding suggest that obesity and increased BMI is a risk factor for more serious mucosal lesion in the esophagus and will increase possibilities of complication of higher grade of GERD. Conclusion: Higher body mass index (BMI) seems to be associated with higher degree of endoscopic erosive GERD severity

Keywords

GERD, BMI, Endoscopic