GERD – PH Test

Transcript

As far as testing, the upper endoscopy that we talked about earlier will help the physicians determine if you have any injury because of your reflux disease. That is a separate test, which is more of a gold standard for reflux and that’s called a Ph test with impedance. Impedance just means that you can tell which direction the refluxate is going. The way that Ph test is done, a small catheter is placed through your nose passed down to your esophagus, a fair distance almost to the end of your esophagus. All right, and you walk around with this catheter in place for 24 hours. Now you’ll have a little walkman type device or on your belt, and if you feel heartburn, you press one button. If you take your medications, you press a different button. If you eat a meal, you press a different button. If you recline like you’re going asleep, press a different button and duration of acid reflux will be recorded over 24 hour period of time. There’s a particular score called the DeMeester score and it has to be less than close to 15 to be within a normal range. If your DeMeester score is greater than, let’s say 15 then that’s compatible with acid reflux disease.