Unexplained Chest Pain Relieved By New Treatment

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Pain / Anesthetics;  Acid Reflux / GERD
Article Date: 14 May 2007 - 16:00 PDT

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The discomfort caused by esophageal (non-cardiac) chest pain is often severe, driving many patients to emergency rooms and physicians' offices despite the fact that the ailment has no definable pathology. Although this pain may sometimes be the result of acid reflux disease, when this is absent most patients present hypersensitivity of the esophagus, and a recent study suggests a potential new way of managing this and other symptoms.

The study finds that theophylline, taken either intravenously or orally, appears to reduce esophageal chest pain by relaxing the esophageal wall and decreasing hypersensitivity. Lead author Satish S.C. Rao finds evidence that these beneficial effects may also be influenced by theophylline's actions on adenosine receptors, altering esophageal sensory thresholds at the same time as relaxing the muscles.

Rao notes that "following oral administration, symptomatic improvement was seen in nearly 60 percent of patients, and the drug was reasonably well tolerated," adding that "if a cardiac, pulmonary, musculoskeletal or esophageal source such as acid reflux disease can be excluded, our findings suggest that a trial of theophylline may be effective in relieving chest pain."

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This study is published in The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Digestive Disease Week runs from May 19 - May 24 in Washington, D.C.

Satish S.C. Rao, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP, FACG is a professor of medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine and has published more than fifteen papers in the field of gastroenterology in the last decade.

The American Journal of Gastroenterology meets the day-to-day demands of clinical practice. Aimed at practicing clinicians, the journal's articles deal directly with the disorders seen most often in patients. The journal brings a broad-based, interdisciplinary approach to the study of gastroenterology, including articles reporting on current observations, research results, methods of treatment, drugs, epidemiology, and other topics relevant to clinical gastroenterology. For more information, please visit http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/ajg.

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Contact: Sean Wagner
Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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