24 HOUR ESOPHAGEAL PH MONITORING IN HEALT HY-INDIVIDUALS

Background: Twenty four hour esophageal pH monitoring is considered th e gold standard investigation for gastroesophageal reflux disease. Thi s test allows the linkage of symptoms to occurrence of reflux episodes and is used to record the frequency of reflux and the amount of esoph ageal acid exposure that results from reflux. Aim To know, the acid es ophageal exposure in healthy Chilean subjects. Subjects and methods: T hirty two asymptomatic volunteers aged 30 to 76 years old (24 female) underwent 24 h esophageal pH monitoring with a digitrapper Mark II Gol d (Synectics Medical Stockholm). Total reflux episodes, episodes great er than 5 min, the longest reflux: episode, the lapse with pH < 5 the percentage of time with pH < 4 and the score suggested by Johnson and De Mester were analyzed. Results: There was a mean of 20.9 reflux epis odes per subject and 0.1 episodes of more than 5 min. The longest epis ode lasted 8 min and the mean total time of acid reflux was 10 min/24 h. Total percentage pH below 4 was 0.7% auld the mean score nons 3.2. No subject reported symptoms during the test. Conclusions: For practic al purposes, the upper limit of normal acid exposure in Chilean subjec ts is 2.4%.