Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is an important public
health problem which is extremely common nowadays. Symptoms of
GERD arise from the exposure of increased acid gastric contents
into the lower part of the esophageal mucosa. Most patients with
GERD have NERD with invisible mucosal damages under endoscopy.
There is not a gold standard to diagnose NERD due to the poor
sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility of many existing
methods. Dilated intercellular spaces (DIS) in the esophageal
epithelium have been a recent research hotspot. DIS has been
considered as a feature of esophageal epithelial damage induced
by gastric acid reflux, and serves as a marker for new methods
to diagnose NERD. Studies have highlighted the importance of
refluxed gastric acid in esophageal epithelial DIS. Until now,
the specificity of DIS has been questionable. A research article
to be published on March 7, 2010 in the World Journal of
Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team, led
by Professor Zhou fro