Does omeprazole improve asthma-control in poorly-controlled asthmatic children with gastro-esophageal reflux
Abdelghani Yagoubi, Youcef Laid, Leila Smati, Keltoum Nafissa Benhalla, Fadila Benhassine
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The role of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) in poorly controlled asthma is often mentioned, but published studies have presented discordant results. Our main objective was to assess the effectiveness of GERD treatment in controlling asthma in children. METHODS: We conducted a prospective study including poorly controlled asthmatic children aged 4 to 16 years. We checked the presence of acid reflux using pH monitoring. Patients with GERD were randomized into two groups; one received omeprazole for 6 months and the control group was not treated. The outcome was the score of the children asthma control test at the end of 6 months. The acid suppression was checked at the end of treatment with pH monitoring. After treatment, children with persistent acid reflux received high PPI doses and therefore were reevaluated 6 months later. RESULTS: =.05). These factors were not confirmed or were not sufficiently precise in multivariate analysis. The likelihood of a causal relationship between acid reflux and asthma, difficult to highlight with pH monitoring, was poor. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed the high prevalence of GER in poorly controlled asthmatic children and showed the possible benefit of an efficient GER treatment in improving asthma control.