Relationship between Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease and Salivary pH: A Simple Outpatient Method in Patients with Chronic Cough.

Shata, Aalaa K; Abdo, Ahmed Abbas; Khanany, Farida M; Osman, Enas A; Khalil, Mahmoud M; Ghaly, Ragy Mamdouh

doi:10.21608/asmj.2025.374754.1434

Relationship between Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease and Salivary pH: A Simple Outpatient Method in Patients with Chronic Cough.

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Pulmonology department...Faculty of Medicine ...Ain Shams University....Cairo....Egypt

² Department of Internal Medicine, Ain Shams University

³ Department of Clinical Chemistry, Theodore Bilharz Research Institute

10.21608/asmj.2025.374754.1434

Abstract

Background: Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the most prevalent digestive system disorder and has been associated with more than one atypical presentation, one of the most common presentations is chronic cough (CC) and due to atypical or silent GERD, this chronic cough is not responding to treatment and hence become a refractory chronic cough (RCC). Salivary pH reduction has been linked to GERD.
Objective: This research aims to diagnose persistent cough due to gastroesophageal reflux by the use of salivary pH, Gerd Q, and CDQ questionnaires.
Methodology: Eighty patients were involved in this prospective cross-sectional study at outpatient chest clinic of Ain Shams University Hospitals from from June 2023 to March 2024. the detection of gastroesophageal reflux chronic cough was done by using combined GERD Q questionnaire, CDQ questionnaire with salivary pH –indicator strips.
Results: The present study involved 80 patients with chronic cough lasting >8 weeks. The Salivary pH test was done for all patients provides that 73 % (58) patient with acidic salivary pH (pH <6), while 27% with normal salivary pH (pH > 6.8). Comparison between both Gerd Q and CDQ for presence of GERD and acidic pH was highly significant (with P value < 0.001). The ROC curve shows that the best cut off point for salivary pH to differentiate between chronic cough patients with GERD and chronic cough patients without GERD was ≤6.5 with sensitivity of 88.46%, specificity of 72.09 % and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.787.
Conclusion: Usage of salivary pH strip indicator is considered simple, fast, easy, for detection of gastroesophageal reflux chronic cough combined with GERD Q questionnaire, CDQ questionnaire.

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