Gastroesophageal reflux: twenty-four-hour esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring in full term newborns / 中国新生儿科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the characteristics of gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in term neonates and the association between the reflux behaviors and gastroesophageal reflux events by multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH monitoring retrospectively.Method Full term neonates suspected to have gastroesophageal reflux,admitted to neonatal ward of our Hospital from November 2016 to December 2017 were enrolled for the study.All underwent 24-hour esophageal multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH (24 h MII-pH) monitoring.They were assigned into physiologic GER group and pathologic GER group.Data of demographic characteristics,clinical symptoms,24 h MII-pH results and indecies for evaluating the association between symptoms and reflux events were collected and analyzed.Result A total of 31 cases were enrolled.The median age of starting 24 MII-pH monitoring was 7 days (range from 2 to 28 days).15 cases were diagnosed with pathologic GER (48.4％),and 16 cases were diagnosed with physiologic GER.The symptoms and signs were persistent vomiting,incessant crying,desaturation (oxygen desaturation) and unexplained transient events (including cyanosis or suspected seizure),case number was 12,9,6,2,and 1 respectively.In the pathologic group,the median of total acid reflux 52 (7 to 80),total weakly acidic reflux 58 (19 to 114);In the physiologic group was 36 (3 to 55),35 (6 to 55) respectively.The neonates in pathologic group had more acidic reflux (both before and after feeding),total weak acid reflux and liquid reflux than physiological GER group,which showed statistical significance (P ＜ 0.05).While there was no significant difference in acid reflux time of total,before feeding and after feeding (P ＞0.05).It was proved that the percentage of positive symptom indices of vomiting,postprandial transient events,incessant crying after feeding,and desaturation associated with GER were 100％,100％,66.7％and 33.3％ retrospectively,which indicate that postprandial transient events were associate with GER,and incessant crying,desaturation were partially related to GER.And no association was found between bradycardia and reflux events.Conclusion Pathological GER of term neonates mainly manifest as reflux of weakly acidic and liquid.24 h MII-pH monitoring could detect weakly acidic reflux and weakly alkaline reflux,so it would be the recommended diagnostic tool for neonatal gastroesophageal reflux.Despite vomiting,special attention should be paid to symptoms associated with GER,such as incessant crying,and unexplained transient events et al.