title: Concomitant vesicoureteral reflux and gastroesophageal reflux: an analytic cross-sectional study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) and Gastroesophageal reflux (GER) are both common disorders in children and could be associated with significant morbidities. Although they appear to be separate entities, their natural history and underlying pathophysiology are the same and they both tend to resolve over time. We aimed to appraise their concurrent occurrence and prevalence of GER in VUR patients to understand whether they can be considered different manifestations of a syndrome mainly caused by developmental delay resulting in dysfunction of the sphincters.
  
  
  METHODS
  Totally, 174 children ≤ 2 years of age were enrolled and 87 of them with primary VUR constituted patients group. The rest of the cases with the same age and sex distribution entered control group. All the study population underwent ultrasonographic evaluation to detect GER.
  
  
  RESULTS
  GER was more frequent in patients with primary VUR. GER was more prevalent in higher grades of VUR. We observed higher prevalence of GER and higher grades of VUR in younger infants demonstrating the tendency of both conditions to resolve overtime. Bilateral VUR was more prevalent among patients with higher grades of VUR. GER was more prevalent in patients with bilateral VUR and Prevalence of bilateral VUR decreased with increase in age. These findings show that the chance of concomitant GER and VUR is higher in children with more severe developmental defect of sphincters.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Regarding the higher prevalence of GER among VUR patients and correlation of VUR severity with co-occurrence of GER, besides the natural tendency of both conditions to resolve overtime, they may be considered parts of developmental delay syndrome of sphincters.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Aydin H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Pooli
authors.forename: Shima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aran
authors.forename: Amir Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Farhoud
authors.forename: Lila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Saidian
authors.forename: Abdol-Mohammad
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kajbafzadeh
mesh_terms: D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity / Q000639:trends; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014718:Vesico-Ureteral Reflux / Q000453:epidemiology*