Korean J Gastroenterol.  1998 Nov;32(5):571-578.

Gastroesophageal Reflux in Nutcracker Esophagus and Nonspecific Esophageal Montility Disorder with Chest Pain

• Chung WJ
• Kang YW

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate gastroesophageal reflux in nutcracker esophagus (NE) and nonspecific esophageal motility disorder (NEMD) with chest pain.
METHODS
The study population (31 patients) was divided into 2 groups; 18 patients with NE and 13 patients with NEMD. We performed 24hr pHmetry and Bernstein test for all patients.
RESULTS
In NE group, there was no case (0%) in which time percentage staying under pH 4 was higher than 5.78%. In 2 case(11.1%), DeMeester score was over 14.7. There were 2 cases (11.1%) in which Symptom Iridex (SI) was over 25%, One case (5.5%) showed that Symptom Sensitivity Index (SSI) was over 5%, and three cases (16.6%) showed positivity in Bernstein test. We found gastroesophageal reflux in 7 cases (38.8%) which was positive in any of 5 criteria. In NEMD group, there was one case (7.1%) in which time percentage staying under pH4 wns higher than 5.78%. In one case (7.1%), DeMeester score was over 14.7. There were 3 cases (23.1%) in which SI was over 25%. Two cases (14.3%) showed that SSI was over 5%, and 6 cases (46.2%) showed positivity in Bernstein test. We found gastroesophageal reflux in 8 cases (57.1%) which was positive in any of 5 criteria.
CONCLUSIONS
We found the presence of gastroesophageal reflux in NE (38.8%) and NEMD (57.1%). This results raay contribute to understand pathophysiology and treatment of both NE and NEMD.

Keyword

nutcracker esophagus; Nonspecific seophageal motility disorder; 24hr pHmetry; Bemstein test; Gastroesophageal reflux

MeSH Terms

Chest Pain*
Esophageal Motility Disorders*
Gastroesophageal Reflux*
Humans
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Thorax*