Wickramasinghe N, Devanarayana NM. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms: Correlating endoscopic findings with symptoms and pH-impedance results. World J Gastrointest Endosc 2026; 18(1): 111395 [DOI: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i1.111395]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Niranga Manjuri Devanarayana, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Thalagolla Road, Ragama 11010, Western Province, Sri Lanka. niranga@kln.ac.lk
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Observational Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Endosc. Jan 16, 2026; 18(1): 111395 Published online Jan 16, 2026. doi: 10.4253/wjge.v18.i1.111395
Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease symptoms: Correlating endoscopic findings with symptoms and pH-impedance results
Nilanka Wickramasinghe, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo 00800, Western Province, Sri Lanka
Niranga Manjuri Devanarayana, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Ragama 11010, Western Province, Sri Lanka
Author contributions: Wickramasinghe N and Devanarayana NM carried out the research, wrote the main manuscript text, and prepared figures and tables. All authors approve the final manuscript.
Supported by the University Grants Commission, No. UGC/VC/DRIC/PG2019(1)/CMB/01.
Institutional review board statement: Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethics Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, approval No. EC-19-091.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated during or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Niranga Manjuri Devanarayana, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Thalagolla Road, Ragama 11010, Western Province, Sri Lanka. niranga@kln.ac.lk
Received: July 1, 2025 Revised: August 7, 2025 Accepted: October 31, 2025 Published online: January 16, 2026 Processing time: 200 Days and 15.8 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: A significant proportion of patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) symptoms lack objective evidence of reflux on endoscopy or pH impedance testing. It highlights the need for objective diagnostic tools in evaluating GERD, in addition to symptom-based diagnosis. Future directions should include increasing the availability of endoscopy and pH impedance testing facilities, training of specialists to improve reporting standards, reducing the cost of diagnostic tests, and developing population-specific guidelines and standards. Enhancing diagnostic precision will not only improve patient outcomes and resource utilization in GERD management, but also recognition and appropriate treatment of functional heartburn and reflux hypersensitivity.
