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Alteration of distal esophageal motor functions on different body positions
1Division of Gastroenterology, Veterans General Hospital-Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Background/Aims:
This study tried to resolve whether changed body position influences esophageal manometric parameters.
Material And Methods:
A pneumohydraulic infusion system was employed to measure esophageal parameters for 32 healthy volunteers. They underwent two consecutive manometries on both supine and sitting positions in a random order. These motility measurements included lower esophageal sphincter pressure, dry/wet swallow induced contractile amplitude and interval of distal esophageal body, and its peristaltic speed.
Results:
Sitting position evoked a higher lower esophageal sphincter pressure than the supine measurement (Mean +/- SD: 14.6 +/- 4.0 mmHg vs. 11.9 +/- 4.2 mmHg, p < 0.01). At the distal esophagus, a swallow led to a stronger contractile amplitude and longer interval on supine measurement.
Conclusions:
Recorded peristaltic speeds in various esophageal segments resulted in a difference while this result was mainly due to the different recorded body positions (p < 0.01). Partial esophageal manometric parameters recorded on sitting position are different from the supine measurement. Hence altered body position may modulate some distal esophageal motor functions.