Dysphagia in patients with Chagas' disease

Some patients with Chagas' disease and apparent normal esophageal function complain of dysphagia. With the objective of investigating the esophageal motility of these patients we studied the esophageal contraction amplitude, duration, velocity, and lower esophageal sphincter (LES) pressure of 34 patients with a positive serologic test for Chagas' disease, normal radiologic esophageal examination, peristaltic contractions in the esophageal body, and complete LES relaxation. Fourteen patients complained of dysphagia and 20 had no symptoms. The results were compared with those of 22 healthy controls. We used the manometric method with continuous perfusion. In patients without dysphagia, the LES pressure (17.8 +/- 1.2 mmHg, mean +/- SEM) and distal esophageal amplitude (71.8 +/- 7.9 mmHg) were lower than those of control subjects (24.3 +/- 1.8 mmHg and 100. 4 +/- 10.6 mmHg, respectively). The velocity of peristaltic contractions was higher in patients than in controls, but there was no difference between patients with or without dysphagia. The duration of contraction in the distal esophagus was longer in patients with dysphagia (3.9 +/- 0.2 sec) than in patients without dysphagia (3.1 +/- 0.2 sec) and controls (3.2 +/- 0.2 sec). We conclude that dysphagia in patients with Chagas' disease and a nondilated esophagus with peristaltic contractions and complete LES relaxation is related to a longer duration of contractions in the middle and distal esophageal body.