Symptom predictability in gastroesophageal reflux disease and role of proton pump inhibitor test.

There are problems with the definition, assessment, and measurement of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). The Reflux Disease Questionnaire and the GERD questionnaire are patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures for use in a primary care setting, which are easy to use and are validated. There is no widely accepted definition of a proton pump inhibitor test and performance of the test in the clinical setting is not standardized. The use of the PRO measures in primary care with predetermined cutoff values may help to reduce the cost of diagnosing GERD and increasing rates of response for evaluated patients to acid suppression.