Abstract
Background: the measurement of esophageal pressure (Pes) is applied in physiopathologic studies and clinical practice. Esophageal catheters with micro-transducers (MTC) promise to facilitate the insertion and use of esophageal catheters. Unfortunately the MCT were scarcely tested and validated. Aim: to evaluate, in vitro and in vivo, the stability and agreement of esophageal catheters with air-filled balloon (BC) and MTC. Methods: in vitro: catheters had their frequency response and stability evaluated over 6h. In vivo: 9 volunteers had a BC and MTC simultaneously inserted and located at the same esophageal level. The stability of the baseline Pes, ΔPes and Pes during sniff were evaluated over 3h. Results: in vitro: the MTC frequency response was higher than BC (261±26 vs 114±33 Hz, p<0.01). The MTC mean baseline drift was -0.6±1.7 cmH2O (range 5.6). In vivo: the mean drift of the baseline Pes of the BC was higher than the MTC (1.8±4.9 vs-3.1±6.1 cmH2O, p<0.01). The BC coefficient of variation was higher than the MCT (28.9% vs 9.9%). The agreements between both catheters at baseline Pes, ΔPes and esophageal pressure during sniff were poor
. Conclusions: MTC have a higher frequency response associated to a lower pressure drift and coefficient of variation than BC. However, due to the low agreement, MTC shall not be consider as surrogates of BC.
- © 2014 ERS
