Esophageal pH monitoring remains a primary diagnostic tool for detecting gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). GERD that is refractory to proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medications may be related to CYP2C19 variants. Current PPI dosing practices in children do not take into account CYP2C19 allelic variants, which may lead to underdosing and subsequently to a misperception of PPI therapy failure. We hypothesized that pH probe acid exposure outcomes associate with CYP2C19*17 alleles among children with clinical concern for GERD. We identified a retrospective cohort of 74 children (age range 0.71-17.1 years, mean 8.5, SD 4.6) with stored endoscopic tissue samples and who had also undergone esophageal pH testing while on PPI therapy. These individuals were genotyped for common CYP2C19 alleles and were dichotomized to either CYP2C19*17 allelic carriers without corresponding loss of function alleles as cases vs controls. Associations between pH probe acid exposure outcomes and CYP2C19*17 alleles were investigated. Compared to controls, children who carry CYP2C19*17 alleles without corresponding loss-of-function alleles demonstrated statistically significant longer times with pH < 4 (76.46 vs 33.47 minutes, P = .03); and higher percent of time with pH < 4.0 (5.71 vs 2.67 minutes, P = .04). These findings remained statistically significant using multiple-regression modeling with test duration, PPI dose, and race as confounding variables. PPI therapy in children with *17 alleles may be better optimized with CYP2C19 genotype-guided dosing prior to pH probe testing.
Keywords proton pump inhibitor, children, CYP2C19, GERDThe rate of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) diagnoses in children has increased over the past decade with a concomitant rapid increase in the use of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medications. 1 Esophageal pH monitoring remains the primary diagnostic tool for detecting refractory GERD (not responsive to PPI therapy). 2 When GERD that is refractory to PPI treatment in children is identified in clinical practice, genetic factors related to PPI metabolism are not generally thought to play a role. 3 The efficacy of PPIs to treat GERD and related conditions is closely linked to plasma concentrations. 4 All PPIs except rabeprazole undergo significant metabolism by CYP2C19, and genetic variation in CYP2C19 influences the pharmacokinetics of all PPIs. [5][6][7] The CYP2C19 gene is located on chromosome 10q24.1-q24.3, has 9 exons and is highly polymorphic. 8-10 Several loss-of-function (LOF) alleles (eg, CYP2C19*2 through *9) reduce drug clearance and significantly increase PPI plasma concentrations. Alleles carrying rs12248560 are termed *17, and individuals carrying 1 or 2 such alleles clear PPIs at a higher rate and have lower PPI plasma levels compared to carriers of LOF alleles. 3,[11][12][13] Studies have reported a variable range of 10% to 40% of pediatric and adult GERD patients fail standard doses of PPI and often undergo esophageal pH testing either on or off therapy. 14 Several factors contribu...