Abstract
The lower esophageal sphincter pressure (LESP) was measured by inserting a miniature semiconductor pressure sensor into the esophagus instead of the conventional open-tipped method. The data obtained with this method was in good agreement with those acquired with the opentipped method.
In the actual measurements with this instrument, the pull-through technique under normal respiration was comparedwith the rapid pull-through one: the latter proved to be superior to the formerin reproducibility, and easier in the analysis of wave patterns; consequently, the latter method seems to be more accurate.
In this study of the lower esophageal sphincter, the LESP was investigated in terms of age, obesity and intraabdominal pressure. There was no difference in LESP according to the age and the grade of obesity. The increase in the intraabdominal pressure caused by changing the posture (from supine to prone position) or by the presence of ascites increased the intragastric pressure, accompanied by an elevation in LESP.
There was no difference in LESP between the control, gastric ulcer and liver cirrhosis groups, while it was slightly low in the duodenal ulcer group, and obviously low in theesophagitis group. Irrespective of the presence of any disease, the LESP of patients with heartburn was significantly low, as compared with heartburn-free patients.
There was no significant correlation between LESP and the secretion of gastric acid either in the esophagitis, gastric ulcer or duodenal ulcer group.
Gastric alkalinization increased LESP, but gastric acidification decreased it. There occurred no obvious changes in serum gastrin level following the change ofintragastric ph.
Neostigmine and metoclopramide increased LESP, but hyoscine-N-butyl bromide decreased it.
