Esophageal impedance baseline according to different time intervals

Area of Science:

• Gastroenterology
• Pediatric Medicine
• Medical Device Technology

Background:

• The esophageal impedance baseline reflects esophageal integrity.
• Decreased impedance baseline is observed in patients with esophagitis.
• Methods for determining the impedance baseline have not been previously compared.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare different methods for determining the median impedance baseline in children with non-erosive reflux disease.
• To assess the variation and variability of impedance baseline measurements using different analysis periods.
• To evaluate the adequacy of automatic impedance baseline determination methods.

Main Methods:

• Median impedance baseline calculated in 10 children with non-erosive reflux disease.
• Impedance baseline determined including and excluding impedance episodes (IEs).
• Analysis included full recording, and 1-minute periods every 1, 2, or 4 hours.

Main Results:

• No participants had esophagitis.
• The difference between impedance baseline with and without IEs was approximately 2.5%.
• One-minute analysis methods yielded results comparable to 24-hour analysis.

Conclusions:

• Automatic determination of the median impedance baseline over the total tracing, including IEs, is adequate.
• For tracings with numerous IEs, calculating the median impedance baseline over one minute every 4 hours is an alternative.
• Software development is recommended for calculating the median impedance baseline while excluding all IEs.