Premium
Pachydermia is Not Diagnostic of Active Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease
Author(s) -
Hill R Keith,
Simpson C Blake,
Velazquez Ruben,
Larson Nicole
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1097/00005537-200409000-00010
Subject(s) - medicine , laryngopharyngeal reflux , reflux , muscle hypertrophy , anterior commissure , gastroenterology , grading (engineering) , posterior commissure , disease , surgery , civil engineering , engineering , nucleus , psychiatry
Objective: To determine the change in pachydermia/posterior commissure hypertrophy in patients with laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPR) on long‐term acid‐suppressive therapy. Study Design: Retrospective chart review. Methods: Seventeen patients with LPR who were compliant with long‐term acid‐suppressive treatment and had good control of their symptoms for at least 20 months were examined. Pre‐ and posttreatment still laryngeal images from these patients were analyzed by five otolaryngologists blinded to patient information and were scored for pachydermia/posterior commissure hypertrophy according to the Reflux Finding Score (RFS) subset. Test‐retest intraobserver reliability, intergrader correlations, as well as a paired t test for means of the data sets were then calculated. Results: There was no significant difference in the grading scores between the pre‐ and posttreatment group for degree of pachydermia/posterior commissure hypertrophy despite a prolonged treatment interval (mean = 32 months) ( P = .25). Conclusions: There is no statistically significant difference in the degree of pachydermia/posterior commissure hypertrophy found at diagnosis and after long‐term acid suppressive therapy in patients with LPR. Therefore, it appears that pachydermia, as an isolated finding, is unreliable in determining the presence of active LPR.