CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTINUOUS ESOPHAGEAL PH-METERING IN INFANTS WITH GASTROESOPHAGEAL REFLUX AND APPARENT LIFE-THREATENING EVENTS

Episodes of apnea during the first year of life have been classified w ith the term ''Apparent Life-Threatening Events'' (ALTE). Gastroesopha geal reflux (GER) has been accepted to be one of the factors which can favor ALTE. The aim of this work is to study the continuous 24 h gast roesophageal pH-metering (fundamentally the Reflux Index [RI] and the Area Under Curve [AUC] parameters in three different periods of time: total pH-metering, pH-metering excluding the first two postprandial ho urs, and pH-metering during sleep time, for 24 infants, 14 with ALTE a nd 10 without it). Between these two groups (with and without ALTE) th ere were no significant differences in the total pH-metering concernin g the RI (2 +/- 1.2 vs 5.6 +/- 7.5 p > 0.05) and concerning the AUC (2 4.9 +/- 14.4 vs 67.4 +/- 84 p > 0.05), but in the analysis of the slee p period, the RI (p < 0.05) and the AUC (p < 0.01) both showed signifi cant differences in the group of infants without ALTE. These results c onfirm that pH-metering study during sleep is the procedure of choice for recognizing infants with ALTE.