Diagnostic yield of 96-h wireless pH monitoring and usefulness in patients' management

OBJECTIVE: To get insight into usefulness of 96-h wireless monitoring in diagnosis of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) and in patients' management. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 51 patients who underwent 96-h wireless and 51 matched patients who underwent 24-h traditional pH monitoring were enrolled and retrospectively contacted with a structured telephone interview. RESULTS: In the wireless group, the 96-h recording improved (p < 0.05) the diagnostic yield compared with the first 48-h recording by allowing Symptom Association Probability to be measured in eight more patients and by decreasing indeterminate tests from 11 to 5. After pH monitoring, concordance between results of the test and treatment for GERD was higher in the wireless compared with the traditional group, 78% versus 58% of the patients (p < 0.05). Both improvement/disappearance of the clinically relevant symptom and satisfaction (score of 1-10) at time of the telephone interview were however similar in the two groups, 73% versus 65% and 7.0 versus 6.5. CONCLUSIONS: Wireless pH monitoring prolonged to 96 h increased the likelihood to exclude/confirm GERD as the cause of the clinically relevant symptoms in those patients with an indeterminate result for GERD after the first 48 h. Outcome was however similar to the one of traditional pH monitoring.