NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Upper gastrointestinal tract pathology appears to be the norm, not the exception, in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and in people who only snore, a small study suggests.

In patients with either condition, the incidence of GI tract findings on endoscopy is over 80%, according to findings presented this week at the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery Foundation Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO in San Diego, California.

“There is an increasing mass of evidence for a link between obstructive sleep apnea syndrome and gastroesophageal reflux disease,” lead researcher Dr. Nora Siupsinskiene, from Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania, told Reuters Health. However, she added, “to our knowledge, till now no study was published on evaluation of upper Gl tract endoscopic findings in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome versus snoring patients.”

The study involved 42 adults with OSA and 13 snoring-only control subjects who underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopy. Subjects with OSA had an apnea/hypopnea index of at least 5 episodes per night.

Pathological GI findings were found in the majority of both groups: 83.3% of the OSA patients and 84.6% of the snoring-only group. Moreover, 59.5% of OSA patients and 76.9% of snoring subjects had two or more GI findings on endoscopy.

The most common GI tract finding was hiatal hernia, seen in 64.3% of OSA patients, followed by grade A erosive esophagitis, seen in 45.2%. Other findings included histological esophagitis and erosive gastritis (both 21.4%), duodenal ulcer (7.1%), and biliary reflux (4.8%). A similar distribution of findings was seen in snoring-only subjects.

The severity of OSA was not significantly associated with the overall frequency of GI tract findings, the researchers report. A mild correlation was seen with erosive gastritis, however.

In light of these findings, Dr. Siupsinskiene said that consultation with a gastroenterologist is recommended “in all patients diagnosed with sleep disordered breathing” regardless of the severity of the disease.