Nonspecific marker of non-erosive reflux disease
Gastrooesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is an important public health problem which is extremely common nowadays. Symptoms of GERD arise from the exposure of increased acid gastric contents into the lower part of the oesophageal mucosa. Most patients with GERD have NERD with invisible mucosal damages under endoscopy. There is not a gold standard to diagnose NERD due to the poor sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of many existing methods. Dilated intercellular spaces (DIS) in the oesophageal epithelium have been a recent research hotspot. DIS has been considered as a feature of oesophageal epithelial damage induced by gastric acid reflux, and serves as a marker for new methods to diagnose NERD. Studies have highlighted the importance of refluxed gastric acid in oesophageal epithelial DIS. Until now, the specificity of DIS has been questionable...