A PPI test does not improve diagnosis of GERD.

The article investigates the potential use of a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) as a diagnostic strategy to determine gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). A short course of PPI is often used to determine whether a patient with typical reflux symptoms truly has GERD. To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the PPI test, the researchers enrolled 74 patients with typical reflux symptoms. A positive response to the PPI test was considered to a symptom association probability less than 95 percent, a symptom index of less than 50 percent, and a symptom severity index of less than 10 percent. The results indicate the sensitivity of the PPI test was 91 percent.