Response to therapy among neonates with gastro-esophageal reflux is associated with esophageal clearance

Background: Few studies evaluated the efficacy of pharmacological therapy for gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) in newborns, whose safety has been questioned. Esophageal basal impedance (BI) is a marker of mucosal integrity, and treatment with proton pump inhibitors significantly increases BI in infants; however, no correlation with clinical improvement was reported. Aims: To evaluate the relationship between BI and other esophageal pH-impedance parameters and clinical response to therapy in newborns with GERD. Study design: Multicenter retrospective study. Subjects: Infants who received omeprazole or ranitidine for GERD. Outcome measures: Complete response to therapy was defined as symptom decrease by ≥50% compared to baseline, partial response as symptom decrease <50%, no response as no symptom decrease based on chart analysis. Response to therapy was assessed 2 and 4 weeks after the onset of therapy. Univariate and multivariate statistics were performed to assess associations between response to therapy and clinical/pH-impedance parameters. Results: We studied 60 infants (51 born preterm): 47 received omeprazole, 13 ranitidine. Response to therapy was associated with decreasing esophageal clearance time: odds ratio 0.308, 95%CI 0.126–0.753, p = 0.010 at 2 weeks, odds ratio 0.461, 95%CI 0.223–0.955, p = 0.037 at 4 weeks. Conclusions: Clinical response to therapy among infants with GERD was associated with esophageal clearance but not with esophageal BI level.