Prevalence of esophageal disorders in patients with recurrent chest pain

The objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of esophageal disorders (ED) associated with recurrent chest pain (RCP) and the utility of esophageal functional tests (EFT) in the study of these patients. The cross-sectional study was conducted at Hospital Clínico de La Frontera, Chile. One hundred and twenty-three patients with RCP were studied using esophageal manometry, edrophonium stimulation and 24-h pH monitoring. The performance of EFT was considered acceptable when they were capable of finding ED. To state the probability that RCP had an esophageal origin, patients were classified according to whether their pain had a probable, possible or unlikely esophageal origin. The prevalence of ED was determined according to diagnoses obtained after applying EFT and a multivariate analysis was performed to examine the association between the esophageal origin of RCP and ED. Rates of correct diagnosis of 65.9%, 56.9% and 31.7% was verified for 24-h pH monitoring, esophageal manometry and edrophonium stimulation, respectively. In 38.2% of patients with RCP, the pain was probably of esophageal origin, in 42.3% there was a possible esophageal origin and in 19.5% an unlikely esophageal origin. A 44.7% prevalence of GERD, 26.8% of GERD with secondary esophageal motor dysfunction and 8.9% of pure esophageal motor dysfunction were verified. The multivariate analysis allowed us to verify the association between the probability of esophageal origin of RCP, the variables RCP duration, esophagitis and dysphagia coexistence (P= 0.037, P= 0.030 and P= 0.024, respectively), and a statistically significant association between ED and dysphagia coexistence (P= 0.028). A high prevalence of ED was identified in patients with RCP.