TASTE ALTERATIONS IN PATIENTS WITH GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX DISEASE

Background and aim: A higher incidence of mouth burning sensation and sensitivity to sour taste has been found in some patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Oral cavity alterations have been mentioned as causal mechanism of an altered taste perception. Our aim is to study the taste perception in GERD patients in the absence of oral cavity alterations. Material and methods: Forty-eight naive patients with typical GERDsymptoms (29 males and 19 females, age range 25–69 years) and twenty gender and age matched healthy subjects (HS) were studied. All subjects underwent a standardized questionnaire to evaluate GERD-symptom scores and a questionnaire to evaluate the ability to correctly identify the basic tastes: sweet, bitter, salty, umami and sour. The following substances served as specific taste agonists: acesulfame K (30mM), quinine (10mM), NaCl (120mM), monopotassium glutamate + inosine monophosphate, (30+0.5mM), and citric acid (50mM), respectively. In addition each subject was asked to score the intensity of each taste by using a 100mm line-visual analogue scale (VAS). Results: The percentage of overall taste misperception was not significantly different between GERD and HS (21.5% vs 14, respectively, p=0.10). GERD patients compared to HS, reported a significant higher perception for acid (67±26 vs 58±22 mm, p<0.01) and lower perception for salty (51±21 vs 66±20, p<0.01) respectively. Conclusions: The ability of GERD patients to score acidity more than HS may suggest a possible sensitization of sour taste receptors. A similar mechanism in the GI tract could be supposed to participate to symptoms generation. We need further studies to correlate extent and quality of reflux with taste perception of GERD patients.