The causal relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease and bronchiectasis: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study

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Author: WANG Yige ¹ PEI Wenjun ²  XIAO Qiang ²

Affiliation: 1. The Second Clinical Medical School, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 210011, China 2. Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Changde City, Changde 415000, Hunan Province, China

Keywords: Gastroesophageal reflux disease Bronchiectasis Mendelian randomization Genome-wide association study Causal relationship

DOI: 10.12173/j.issn.1004-4337.202507067

Reference: Wang YG, Pei WJ, Xiao Q. The causal relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease and bronchiectasis: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study[J]. Journal of Mathematical Medicine, 2026, 39(2): 124-131. DOI: 10.12173/j.issn.1004-5511.202507067[Article in Chinese]  Copied

Abstract
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Abstract

Objective To investigate the causal relationship between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and bronchiectasis by using bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis.

Methods Using a publicly available genome-wide association study aggregate data set. MR was performed using MR-Egger regression, weighted median estimator (WME), inverse variance weighting (IVW), simple mode(SM) and weighted mode(WM), which were used for MR Analysis of two samples to evaluate the causal relationship between GERD and bronchiectasis.

Results There was a causal relationship between GRED and an increased risk of bronchiectasis (OR=1.249, 95%CI: 1.023~1.523, P=0.028). The MR results did not find a causal effect of bronchiectasis on the risk of GERD (OR=1.015, 95%CI: 0.998~1.033, P=0.065). In the bidirectional MR analysis, there was no horizontal pleiotropy and heterogeneity among the instrumental variables. Sensitivity analysis using the leave-one method found that MR analysis results were robust.

Conclusion GERD is a risk factor for bronchiectasis, while there is no causal effect of bronchiectasis on the development of GERD.

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References

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