Esophageal Motor Patterns During Episodes of Dysphagia for Solids

Although dysphagia for solids is a common complaint, the motor response to eating is not routinely studied during diagnostic manometry. Esophageal motility was examined in 47 patients with a history of dysphagia and 34 patients without dysphagia. In 22 of those with dysphagia, the symptoms were reproduced in the laboratory when the patients ate bread. These patients had a higher swallow frequency, reduced peristaltic swallow rate, and an increased rate of synchronous contractions compared to patients without dysphagia. In 22 of 53 separate episodes of dysphagia, a mixed pattern of esophageal motility was seen with peristaltic synchronous and nonconducted swallows (although peristaltic swallows were