Abstract

BACKGROUND: The study assessed the incidence of pathologic gastroesophagealreflux in children with obstructive bronchitis and analyzed the correlation of pHmetric parameters withthe incidence of obstructive bronchitis according to age groups. MATERIAL/METHODS: 109 children agedfrom 4 months to 17 years with the history of at least two documented incidents of obstructive bronchitisduring the period of one year were examined. Each patient underwent 24h esophageal pHmetry. The analyzedpatients were divided into 3 age groups: I - 4 months-2 years, II - 3-9 years, III - 10-17 years; eachof 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 onthe basis of pHmetry in 62.4% of patients. It was demonstrated in own material that gastroesophagealreflux is more frequent in boys (64.7%) than in girls (35.3%). Comparison of pHmetric parameters in childrensuffering from obstructive bronchitis more and less frequently did not demonstrate higher pHmetric parametersin children with more frequent occurrence of obstructive bronchitis in any of the age groups. Althoughgastroesophageal reflux occurred frequently in children with obstructive bronchitis, no proportionalcorrelation 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 orexclude gastroesophageal reflux as a cause of recurrent obstructive bronchitis.

Keywords: Adolescent, Bronchitis, Child, Child, Preschool, Gastroesophageal Reflux, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration