Table 2. Inflammatory and Histologic Findings at Baseline.
| Parameters | True NERD | Hypersensitive esophagus | Functional heartburn | Total | p value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inflammatory markers | |||||
| TNF-α* | 0.66±0. 61 | 0.24±4.77 | 3.53±4.39 | 2.61±4.39 | 0.742 |
| IL-8* | 2.50±0.40 | 4.45±6.94 | 6.73±11.09 | 5.09±8.19 | 0.783 |
| IL-1β* | 0.27±0.15 | 0.34±0.12 | 0.38±0.23 | 0.35±0.17 | 0.724 |
| TRPV1* | 0.24±0.14 | 0.63±0.89 | 1.02±0.90 | 0.74±0.85 | 0.475 |
| MCP-1* | 9.19±3.17 | 15.09±9.70 | 19.62±12.88 | 16.00±10.55 | 0.477 |
| Histologic markers (score/number)† | |||||
| Basal cell hyperplasia | 2/2 | 9/10 | 10/8 | 0.656 | |
| Papillary elongation | 2/2 | 8/10 | 6/8 | 0.098 | |
| DIS | 0/2 | 19/10 | 4/8 | 0.391 | |
| Eosinophils | 0/2 | 10/10 | 0/10 | 0.348 | |
| T lymphocytes | 3/2 | 14/10 | 9/10 | 0.030 |
NERD, non-erosive reflux disease; TNF-α, tumor necrosis factor-alpha; IL-8, interleukin 8; IL-1β, interleukin-1 beta; TRPV1, transient receptor potential vanilloid 1; MCP-1, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1; qRT-PCR, quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction; GAPDH, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase; DIS, dilated intercellular spaces.
*TNF-α, IL-8, IL-1β, TRPV1, and MCP-1 were measured by qRT-PCR. GAPDH was used as the endogenous control. The Ct values of TNF-α, IL-8, TRPV1, and MCP-1 were normalized to GAPDH using the 2−ΔΔCt method. Fold-change in TNF-α, IL-8, TRPV1, and MCP-1 compared to GAPDH was amplified by 104-fold for convenience. Some samples were not sufficient to perform qRT-PCR, and only reliable qRT-PCR data points were used for analysis (TNF-α: 16; IL-8: 18; IL-1β: 19; TRPV1: 18; MCP-1:14). †Histologic marker represented as the sum of score/number of patients in each subgroup. Histologic findings include basal cell hyperplasia, papillary elongation, DIS, intraepithelial eosinophils, and intraepithelial T lymphocytes.