Esophageal pH and Combined Impedance-pH Monitoring in Children

Esophageal pH monitoring is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux disease because of the normal ranges across the pediatric age range. However, this method can only detect acid reflux. Multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH (MII-pH) monitoring has recently been used for the detection of bolus reflux in infants and children. This method allows for the detection of liquid, gas or mixed reflux in addition to acid, weakly acidic or weakly alkaline reflux. MII-pH monitoring can record the direction of flow and the height of reflux, which are useful parameters to identify an association between symptoms and reflux. However, the technique is limited by its high cost and the lack of normative data of MII-pH in the pediatric population. Despite certain limitations, MII-pH monitoring will become more common and gradually replace pH monitoring in the future, because pH monitoring is part of MII-pH.