Upper esophageal sphincter pressure recording: is an oval manometry catheter necessary?

Abstract

A comparison was made between recording by a round and oval catheter of upper esophageal sphincter (UES) pressures in 20 normal volunteers. Each catheter had four radial side openings at 90°. The round catheter was 4 mm in diameter, which was identical to the smaller (antero posterior) dimension of the oval catheter. Studies were performed using a pneumohydraulic perfusion system with a random sequence of studies regarding the type of catheter and technique; station pull-through, or rapid pull-through. All pressures were evaluated by on-line computer analysis. There was no significant difference in mean, maximum, or minimum UES pressure recorded by the round or oval catheter. Consistently higher pressures were obtained during rapid pull-through with both the oval and round catheters. We conclude that UES pressures recorded in normal subjects vary with pull-through technique and that comparable UES pressures can be obtained with either an oval or round catheter configuration having at least four side openings at 90° intervals.