Radionuclide esophageal transit test: detection of esophageal dysmotility and reflux in noncardiac chest pain.

Thirty-one patients with substernal chest pain but with normal coronary angiographic findings and 25 normal volunteers were included in our study. Esophageal motility--including esophageal mean transit time (MTT), residual fraction (RF), and retrograde index (RI) of the two groups--were evaluated by the radionuclide esophageal transit test. The results showed that among patients with noncardiac chest pain (NCP), 48% have a longer MTT, 39% have a higher RF, and 58% have a higher RI than normal volunteers. We found that esophageal disorders are a common source of noncardiac chest pain, and that radionuclide esophageal transit test is a simple noninvasive screening method to detect esophageal dysmotility or gastroesophageal reflux in such cases.