Clinical results from a randomized, double-blind, dose-ranging study of pantoprazole in children aged 1 through 5 years with symptomatic histologic or erosive esophagitis

In an 8-week, multicenter, randomized, double-blind study, we evaluated the efficacy and tolerability of pantoprazole (0.3mg/kg [low dose (LD)], 0.6 mg/kg [medium dose (MD)], and 1.2 mg/kg [high dose (HD)]) for delayed-release oral suspension (granules) in patients 1 to 5 years with documented symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and endoscopic evidence of reflux-related erosive esophagitis (EE) or histologic esophagitis (HE) consistent with GERD. Patients with HE were randomly assigned to LD, MD, or HD, and patients with EE, to MD or HD. A daily eDiary captured 5 individual GERD symptoms. A total of 60 patients (56 HE, 4 EE) were randomized. Mean weekly GERD symptom score (WGSS, sum of weekly mean frequency scores for 5 individual GERD symptoms) for the modified intention-to-treat HE population at the final week was improved with LD (P <.001), MD (P =.063), and HD (P < 0.001) (paired t-tests). Patients with EE were healed at week 8. Adverse event incidences did not increase with dose.