アレルギーと治療のジャーナル

概要

Prevalence of Gastroesophageal Reflux of Wheezers in Infancy and Early Childhood

Atsushi Isozaki*, Tetsuo Shoda, Aki Tanaka, Kazuko Sugai, Yoichi Nakamura, Shunpei Yokota and Yoichi Nakamura

Background: Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) has largely been recognized as a physiological phenomenon in infancy and early childhood and the relationship of severe, recurrent wheezing to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) has been well described. However it has remained unclear how many mildly wheezy infants are complicated by GER.
Objective: This study investigated the prevalence of GERD among wheezers in infancy and early childhood in Japan. Subjects and Method: We evaluated esophageal pH monitoring in wheezy children under 2 years old. Results: A positive pH index was found in 9.4% of all subjects.
Conclusion: Although the prevalence of GERD among severe wheezers was higher in previous reports, our study concluded that the prevalence of GERD among wheezers was lower in younger children.