The Clinical Features Of Ineffective Esophageal Motility

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Acid Reflux / GERD
Article Date: 28 Sep 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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Ineffective oesophageal motility (IOM) is a common swallowing abnormality characterised by low-amplitude contractile sequences in the lower oesophagus. These ineffective sequences include low amplitude but progressive, low-amplitude simultaneous, and non-transmitted contractile patterns. It is not known whether specific symptoms experienced by IOM patients, such as heartburn, dysphagia (sensation of swallowing difficulty) and chest pain, are associated with one of these three contractile patterns. Also, although gastro-oesophageal reflux disease is common in IOM patients, it is not known if patients with a particular IOM pattern experience the most reflux.

A research article published on 21 June 2008, in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addressed this question. The research team led by John E Kellow from Royal North Shore Hospital of Australia investigated relationships between the symptoms experienced by 100 patients with IOM and their oesophageal function, assessed by manometry (pressure) and ambulatory pH (reflux) testing.

It was found that patients whose ineffective swallows featured mainly simultaneous sequences experienced less heartburn but more dysphagia than those with progressive but weak swallow patterns. The former group differed similarly from a group of 100 age- and gender-matched patients with normal oesophageal function. Groups did not differ in reflux characteristics.

The novel finding of this study is that patients with different subsets of ineffective contractile patterns exhibit different symptom profiles. This raises the possibility of different pathophysiological mechanisms, hence different treatment approaches, in selected IOM patients.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Reference: Haack HG, Hansen RD, Malcolm A, Kellow JE. Ineffective oesophageal motility: Manometric subsets exhibit different symptom profiles. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(23): 3719-3724 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/3719.asp

Correspondence to: John E Kellow, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Royal North Shore Hospital, St. Leonards, NSW 2065, Australia.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Source: Lai-Fu Li
World Journal of Gastroenterology