Esophageal motility study

This article needs more primary sources. Please review the contents of the article and add the appropriate references if you can. Unsourced or poorly sourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Esophageal motility study" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2022)

Esophageal motility study
Diagram of esophageal motility study in 'nutcracker esophagus'. The disorder shows peristalsis with high pressure esophageal contractions exceeding 180 mmHg and contractile waves with a long duration exceeding 6 seconds.
ICD-9-CM	89.32
OPS-301 code	1-313
MedlinePlus	003884
[edit on Wikidata]

An esophageal motility study (EMS) or esophageal manometry is a test to assess

The test is not useful for anatomical disorders of the esophagus (that is, disorders that distort the anatomy of the esophagus), such as peptic strictures and esophageal cancer.

Procedure

A technician places a catheter into the nose and then guides it into the stomach. Once placed in the stomach lining, the catheter is slowly withdrawn, allowing it to detect pressure changes and to record information for later review. The patient will be asked at times to take a deep breath or to take some swallows of water. The degree of discomfort varies among patients. Patients are not sedated because sedatives would alter the functioning of the esophageal muscles. Overall the procedure takes about 45 minutes. After the procedure is complete, patients can usually resume their normal daily activities.

Other diagnostic tests for swallowing

Recent advances

Recently,^[