Manometric findings of esophageal motor disorders in 240 Brazilian patients with non-cardiac chest pain

Two hundred and forty Brazilian patients with chest pain and normal cardiac evaluation were submitted to computerized esophageal manometry. Endoscopic examination and/or swallow barium studies had excluded obstructive lesions. Motor disorders were found in 63% of patients; non-specific motors disorders and hypotensive lower esophageal sphincter were the most common. The finding of nutcracker esophagus in only 6% of the patients is a quite different rate from what has been previously described in the literature. Esophagitis was observed at endoscopy in 13.4% of the patients, hiatus hernia in 19.7% and peptic gastric or duodenal ulcer in 4.9%. It should be emphasized that after excluding pain as being of cardiac origin an abnormal manometry result points to the esophagus as the probable site of origin of the pain; esophageal investigation is important for establishing proper treatment for these patients.