Pathophysiology of functional heartburn based on Rome III criteria in Japanese patients

Table 3 Twenty-four-hour intraesophageal pH-multichannel intraluminal impedance testing

Variable	pH-POS (n = 22)	HE (n = 34)	FH (n = 22)	P value1
% acid exposure time	16.1 ± 15.3b	1.4 ± 2.4	0.7 ± 0.8	< 0.01
Number of reflux episodes	77.8 ± 40.6b	54.6 ± 30.3	33.9 ± 20.8	< 0.01
Acid reflux (pH < 4)	34.1 ± 23.7b	11.2 ± 11.1	7.1 ± 6.3	< 0.01
Non-acid reflux (pH ≥ 4)	41.0 ± 35.1	37.7 ± 32.2	23.8 ± 17.3	0.2
Number of proximal reflux episodes	34.4 ± 26.7b	22.2 ± 12.5	14.1 ± 9.0	< 0.01
% of proximal reflux Episodes	42.5 ± 14.3	42.5 ± 13.3	41.4 ± 14.3	0.9
% of gastric acid exposure time	66.1 ± 20.5	50.6 ± 30.9	49.9 ± 28.7	0.1

¹Determined by the Kruskal-Wallis test;

^bP < 0.01 vs HE and FH. FH: Functional heartburn; HE: Hypersensitive esophagus (non-excessive esophageal acid exposure time and positive symptom index); pH-POS: Excessive intraesophageal acid exposure time.