Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a common clinical chronic digestive system disease. It has the characteristics as high prevalence, easy recurrence and diverse clinical manifestations. The diagnosis of GERD with extra-esophageal manifestations as throat discomfort, cough and hoarseness has always been a difficult clinical problem. With the in-depth understanding of GERD and the continuous development of technology, clinical examinations become more diverse. In this paper, we summarize the developments of several commonly used examinations and novel technologies being used to diagnose people with GERD extra-esophageal symptoms in the future.