Aeriflux Options for Diagnosis

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Options for Diagnosis
Current diagnostic modalities include esophageal pH monitoring and empiric trails of proton pump inhibitors or other gastric acid suppression therapies. The limitations and advantages of each are well-known in the medical community, and we offer the summary below simply for comparison with the Aeriflux Exhaled Breath Condensate pH Test.

Current methods of Acid Reflux Cough diagnosis:

The esophageal pH probe
- Designed for diagnosis of GERD, not cough
- Highly invasive and poorly tolerated by some patients
- Expensive
- Interpretation for relevance to extra-esophageal symptoms of GERD still problematic and vigorously debated in the medical literature
Empiric trials of proton pump inhibitors
- Painless, easy, and by far the most common diagnostic approach
- Can take three months or more to sufficiently conclude the outcome of the trial
- Generally considered as one of the safest medications on the market, although concern is now growing as new studies are showing more profound side effects than previously understood
- Difficult to prove a causative relationship between cough and acid reflux as even a favorable response to PPI therapy does not confirm the diagnosis
- When perceived to be effective, PPI's will often be given long-term, exposing the patient more to potential side effects
Aeriflux™ Exhaled Breath Condensate pH Test
- Non-invasive, simple, and painless
- Objectively and accurately determines when cough is temporally associated with airway acidification
- With objective evidence of airway acidification in the setting of persistent cough, acid-related etiologies of cough can be more confidently addressed and gastric acid suppression therapies can be more appropriately targeted

Aeriflux™ provides straightforward answers to a previously difficult to diagnose condition: Acid Reflux induced Cough.

According to peer-reviewed medical literature, up to half the patients who are prescribed an empiric trail of proton pump inhibition for cough may not show significant improvement upon conclusion of the trial. The Aeriflux™ Exhaled Breath Condensate pH Test can help physicians more appropriately target the use of proton pump inhibition by identifying the patients whose cough is more likely to improve with gastric acid suppression therapy. Furthermore, therapeutic trials of PPI are commonly confounded by spontaneous resolution of the symptoms, or by placebo effect, in which case the physician may have difficulty in determining the true benefit of the medication. In some cases, unneeded medication can continue to be used long-term in patients who simply appeared to benefit from it, thereby placing them at greater risk to any potential side effects. Importantly, in patients with various respiratory diseases (asthma, COPD and others) symptomatic worsening can occur because of allergy exposure or bacterial or viral infection, making a concurrent therapeutic trial of PPI therapy seem to fail when in fact multiple underlying cough etiologies exist.

Aeriflux™ provides objective data that helps overcome these obstacles. A dominant mechanism by which acid reflux causes cough is through aspiration of small amounts of stomach acid, and increasingly this is becoming recognized as the major contributor. When cough is associated with breath acidification, acid reflux cough is much more likely diagnosed, and a positive response to proton pump inhibition can be expected.

We invite your questions about Aeriflux™. Many questions are answered on the Frequently Asked Questions page.

Please contact us at info@respiratoryresearch.com

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