Manometry during food ingestion aids in the diagnosis of diffuse esophageal spasm.

It has been shown that food ingestion can provoke esophageal motor abnormalities in patients with otherwise normal manometry. Such motor abnormalities are usually nonspecific in character. We now report water swallow and food ingestion data on 12 patients with a history of dysphagia and/or chest pain who satisfied strict manometric diagnostic requirements for diffuse esophageal spasm. Three of these patients had normal water swallow manometry, yet, during food ingestion, showed manometric evidence of diffuse esophageal spasm. In the other nine patients, the occurrence of nonperistaltic contractions was greater, and there was a greater incidence of nonperistaltic contractions of 100 mm Hg or more after ingestion of food. We conclude that food ingestion increases the diagnostic yield of manometric testing for diffuse esophageal spasm and, not infrequently, magnifies an abnormality seen during standard water-swallow testing.