Abstract
Idiopathic and Chagas’ disease achalasia are characterized by absent or partial lower esophageal sphincter relaxation, absence of peristaltic esophageal contraction, food retenction in the esophagus and esophageal dilatation. The most frequent symptoms are dysphagia, regurgitation, heartburn, weight loss and non-cardiac chest pain. The diagnosis is made by radiologic examination and esophageal manometry, which is considered the most accurate exam to characterized achalasia. In both diseases there is destruction of the esophageal myenteric plexus. Despite similarities in clinical and manometric presentation there is evidence of greater loss of inhibitory neurons of the myenteric plexus in idiopathic achalasia, whereas in Chagas’ disease there is a loss of both excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Such differences, though do not affect patients’ clinical presentation, and hence treatment options should be the same for both diseases.
Highlights
Achalasia is a disease characterized by absent or partial relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter, absence of peristaltic esophageal contraction, food retention and esophageal dilation[1,2].The most common symptoms are dysphagia, regurgitation, heartburn, weight loss and non-cardiac chest pain[1]
The diagnosis is made by radiologic examination of the esophagus and esophageal manometry, which is the most accurate exam to characterized achalasia
Achalasia is characterized by increased integrated relaxation pressure of the lower esophageal sphincter and absence of peristaltic contraction in the esophageal
Summary
How to cite this article: Dantas RO. Dr Roberto Oliveira Dantas, is a Senior Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. He is a Member of the Advisory Board of the journal Gastroenterology and the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal Dysphagia. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Dysphagia Diet Standardisation Initiative (IDDSI). Article history: Received: 11 Jul 2017 Accepted: 3 Aug 2017 Published: 30 Sep 2017
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