The Consistency Between Symptom Scales and Multi-time Point Salivary Pepsin Test for Diagnosing Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the screening diagnostic value of reflux symptom index (RSI) and reflux symptom score (RSS) for laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD). METHODS: Fifty-two patients hospitalized in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at The Sixth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital between October 2022 and April 2023 were enrolled in the study. These patients completed the RSS, RSI scales, as well as underwent the multi-time point salivary pepsin test (MTPSPT). Cohen's kappa test and receiver operating characteristic analysis were utilized to assess and compare the diagnostic values of the RSI and RSS. RESULTS: A total of 52 patients, comprising 37 males and 15 females, with a mean age of 44 ± 12 years, were enrolled in the study. The Kappa values between RSS, RSI, and MTPSPT were found to be 0.403 (P < 0.05) and 0.192 (P < 0.05), respectively. When considering MTPSPT as the diagnostic criterion, the sensitivity and specificity of RSS were determined to be 76.70% and 76.90%, respectively, while those of RSI were 41.10% and 42.30%. Additionally, the negative predictive values for RSS and RSI stood at 77.70% and 64.70%, respectively, and their positive predictive values were 94.20% and 57.10%. Furthermore, the area under the curves (AUC) for RSS and RSI were calculated to be 0.677 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.464-0.742) and 0.609 (95% CI 0.533-0.800), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: RSS had a better concordance with multi-time point salivary pepsin test results and AUC values when screening for LPRD.