[Upper gastrointestinal symptoms and esophageal motility disorders in indeterminate Chagas disease patients]

This study describes the symptoms reported by patients with the indeterminate form of chronic Chagas disease and evaluates associations between these symptoms and alterations in esophageal motility. Esophageal manometry was performed on 50 patients, with measurements of the length and pressure of the lower esophageal sphincter, peristaltism and the amplitude of contractions of the esophageal body. Eight (16%) patients presented partial relaxation of the lower sphincter, 13 (26%) presented partial lack of peristalsis and 20 (40%) presented hypocontractility of the distal esophagus. Upper digestive symptoms were reported by 24 (48%) patients, and the most frequent of these were heartburn, regurgitation and intermittent discomfort when swallowing. Such symptoms were reported by 17 (51.5%) of the 33 patients with esophageal motor disorders and by 7 (41.2%) of the 17 patients with normal manometry, which was not a statistically significant difference (p=0.69). These findings suggest that patients with the indeterminate form of Chagas disease present nonspecific symptoms in the upper digestive tract that may make it difficult to classify the disease solely on the basis of radiological and clinical examination. Furthermore, a high proportion of patients with this form present esophageal motor disorders.