PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Vandenplas, Yvan
AU  - Goyvaerts, Harry
AU  - Helven, Rudy
AU  - Sacre, Liliane
TI  - Gastroesophageal Reflux, as Measured By 24-Hour pH Monitoring, in 509 Healthy Infants Screened for Risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
DP  - 1991 Oct 01
TA  - Pediatrics
PG  - 834--840
VI  - 88
IP  - 4
4099  - http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/88/4/834.short
4100  - http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/88/4/834.full
SO  - Pediatrics1991 Oct 01; 88
AB  - Continuous long-term esophageal pH monitoring has become the preferred test to quantify acid gastroesophageal reflux. Because reflux to a limited extent is physiologic, the determination of optimal thresholds to separate normal from abnormal reflux is mandatory. Esophageal pH was measured during 24 hours in 509 healthy thriving infants, aged 3 days to 1 year, using a glass microelectrode with an external reference electrode connected to a portable recorder. Percentiles of the four parameters studied (reflux index or percent of the investigation time with a pH <4, number of episodes with a pH <4 during 24 hours, number of episodes lasting >5 minutes, the duration of the longest episode (in minutes)) are presented. A percentile curve of the reflux index regarding the age distribution shows that the normal range for the reflux index during the first 12 months of life is about 10% (95 percentile), decreasing from 13% at birth to 8% at 12 months. Application of an age-related percentile curve offers a close-to-reality possibility of data interpretation and illustrates that there is inevitably an overlap of data between normal and abnormal populations, because reflux is a phenomenon occurring to some extent in every human being.