Features of Endoscopic Changes in Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease in Patients with Type II Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a noninfectious epidemy. In clinical practice, 75% of patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have symptoms of gastrointestinal tract organ damage. The issue of the combined course of digestive organ (DO) diseases, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and diabetes is actively discussed in the scientific literature. Along with this, the factors influencing the course of GERD, its clinical and endoscopic features in patients with type II diabetes have not been sufficiently studied nowadays. The purpose of the study was to determine the features of endoscopic changes in GERD in patients with type II diabetes. Material and methods. The department of surgical diseases and propaedeutics of internal diseases examined 82 patients with type II diabetes with GERD during 2016-2017. The patients with type II diabetes were 44 males (53.7%) and 38 females (46.3%). The average age was 47.9±7.8. All of the studied patients were subjects to anthropometric, general clinic, laboratory and instrumental methods of investigation. The diagnosis of type II diabetes was made according to the recommendations of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF, 2005). GERD was diagnosed according to the criteria of the unified clinic protocol (Ministry of Health order №943 dated 31.01.2013) taking into account complaints, endoscopic examination data, etc. For the endoscopic assessment of the esophagus extent, the Los Angeles (LA) classification was used (1998 р.). The Helicobacter pylori (HP) infection was diagnosed with the help of rapid urease test (CLO-test) and С13-urea breath testing (С13-UBT) (IZINTA, Hungary). The patients also underwent ultrasound examination of abdominal cavity organs (HDI-1500 device, USA), as well as electrocardiographic examination. The analysis and processing of the patients' results were done with the help of a computer program Statistics for Windows v.7.0 (StatSoft Inc., USA) using parametric and non-parametric methods of gathered data evaluation. Results and discussion. The study group included patients with type II diabetes of moderate severity (subcompensated carbohydrate metabolism). Gastrointestinal complaints typical of GERD were detected in 61.0% of the examined patients with type II diabetes. The leading clinical manifestations of lesions of the upper digestive system in the examined patients with type II diabetes included acid regurgitation, globus pharyngeus, and epigastric burning. After a detailed analysis, it was found out that a part of patients with type II diabetes (up to 22.0%) often complained about throat irritation, hoarse voice, and dry cough. We additionally detected precordialgia in the course of the esophagus and abnormalities in cardiac performance in 17.1% of the examined patients with type II diabetes, who were consulted by a cardiologist.