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Reliability of 24-hour home esophageal ph monitoring in diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux

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Abstract

Twenty-four-hour home esophageal pH monitoring is proposed in order to study gastroesophageal reflux (GER) so that prolonged use of costly hospital equipment and staff can be curtailed and the diagnostic accuracy of the examination improved. Eighty-six patients affected by GER symptoms and 20 healthy volunteers underwent 24-hr home esophageal pH monitoring, x-rays, and endoscopy of the upper gastrointestinal tract to investigate reliability of outpatient recording. Fifteen more patients consecutively underwent out- and inpatient recording to detect possible differences between these methods in the two daily periods. Outpatient monitoring was well tolerated in 94.7% of the patients; 14.3% of them markedly reduced their routine activities. The range of normality of outpatient recording does not differ from that of inpatients. In the 15 patients who consecutively underwent out-and inpatient monitoring, no significant differences were reported. The sensitivity of 24-hr home esophageal pH recording is 0.85, the specificity 1, the accuracy for negative prediction 0.68, and the accuracy for positive prediction 1. The reliability of 24-hr home esophageal pH monitoring is comparable to inpatient recording. It allows hospital cost reduction and is also better tolerated by patients but has not greatly improved the diagnostic accuracy of the gastroesophageal reflux pH monitoring.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Clinica Chirurgica II, Istituto di Anatomia Patologica, Istituto di Cardiologia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Sandro Mattioli MD, Vladimiro Pilotti MD, Maurizio Spangaro MD, Walter F. Grigioni MD, Romano Zannoli PhD, Valentino Felice MD, Alessandro Conci MD & Giuseppe Gozzetti MD

Authors
  1. Sandro Mattioli MD
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  2. Vladimiro Pilotti MD
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  3. Maurizio Spangaro MD
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  4. Walter F. Grigioni MD
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  5. Romano Zannoli PhD
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  6. Valentino Felice MD
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  7. Alessandro Conci MD
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  8. Giuseppe Gozzetti MD
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Additional information

Supported by the Ministere Pubblica Istruzione, Rome; and Finanziamenti per studi e ricerche 40%, Com. 06, Cat 12-07 imp. 11515, University of Bologna.

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Mattioli, S., Pilotti, V., Spangaro, M. et al. Reliability of 24-hour home esophageal ph monitoring in diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux. Digest Dis Sci 34, 71–78 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01536157

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01536157

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