Assessment of the value of pHmetry results in diagnostics of gastroesphageal reflux as a cause of obstructive bronchitis in children.

Background: The study assessed the incidence of pathologic gastroesophageal reflux in children with obstructive bronchitis and analyzed the correlation of pHmetric parameters with the incidence of obstructive bronchitis according to age groups.

Material/methods: 109 children aged from 4 months to 17 years with the history of at least two documented incidents of obstructive bronchitis during the period of one year were examined. Each patient underwent 24h esophageal pHmetry. The analyzed patients were divided into 3 age groups: I - 4 months-2 years, II - 3-9 years, III - 10-17 years; each of the obtained groups was divided into 2 subgroups according to the frequency of obstructive bronchitis (a - 2-4 times a year and b - over 4 times a year).

Results: Gastroesophageal reflux was diagnosed on the basis of pHmetry in 62.4% of patients. It was demonstrated in own material that gastroesophageal reflux is more frequent in boys (64.7%) than in girls (35.3%). Comparison of pHmetric parameters in children suffering from obstructive bronchitis more and less frequently did not demonstrate higher pHmetric parameters in children with more frequent occurrence of obstructive bronchitis in any of the age groups. Although gastroesophageal reflux occurred frequently in children with obstructive bronchitis, no proportional correlation was found between the pHmetric parameters and frequency of obstructive bronchitis

Conclusions: Esophageal pHmetry should be performed in children with obstructive bronchitis in order to confirm or exclude gastroesophageal reflux as a cause of recurrent obstructive bronchitis.