The Findings of Esophageal Motility Tests in Esophageal Diverticula

Lee, Chang Kyu; Park, Hyo Jin; Kim, Kyung Wook; Chung, Dae Ho; Song, Jong Won; Lee, Hong Woo; Lee, Sang In; Moon, Young Myung; Park, In Suh

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: It is commonly stated that hypopharyngeal and epiphrenic diverticula may be resulted from motor abnormalities of the esophagus and midesophageal diverticulum is a response to scarring and traction on the wall of the esophagus by external inflammatory process. We performed this study to evaluate motor abnormalities of the esophagus which are related to esophageal diverti cula.
METHODS
Twenty-nine patients with esophageal diverticula and ten normal controls were recrui ted in this study. We performed marshmallow esophagogram, esophageal manometry and radionuclide esophageal scan for the esophageal diverticula group and marshmallow esophagogram and radionu clide esophageal scan for the normal control group.
RESULTS
In marshmallow esophagogram of the patients with esophageal diverticula, 15 patients showed abnormal findings as mild (4 cases, 26.7%) moderate (5 cases, 33.3%) and severe (6 cases, 40.0%) patterns. In esophageal manometry, 11 pati ents showed abnormal esophageal motility patterns in which 7 cases were non-specific esophagea motor disorder (63.6%) and 4 cases were nutcracker esophagus (36.4%). In the parameter of esopha geal scan, statistically significant difference was not observed between the two groups.
CONCLUSIONS
Esophageal diverticula have no significant findings in esophageal transit on radionuclide esophagea scan, but over a half of the patients showed abnormal motility patterns in marshmallow esophago gram or esophageal manometry.