The utility of balloon‐based and standard impedance technology to diagnose esophageal mucosal diseases in children

Background Standard impedance catheters and balloon‐based mucosal impedance catheters (BBMI) have been used to assess mucosal integrity and diagnose mucosal diseases. The goal of this study was to determine the age‐related technical issues associated with mucosal balloon inflation, validate the BBMI measurement against a standard impedance probe, and compare software‐generated diagnoses to histologic diagnoses. Methods We prospectively recruited patients undergoing endoscopy, during which patients underwent standard mucosal impedance catheters and BBMI measurements. Measurements were compared to each other, to the histologic diagnoses, and to the number of eosinophils per high power field. We then compared the patients' diagnosis to that assigned by the BBMI software. Key Results Sixty‐two patients (mean age: 62 ± 62 months) were recruited, including non‐GERD (N = 40), GERD (N = 15), and EoE (N = 7) patients. There were significant differences between the impedance values measured by the two technologies at each esophageal height (p