ABSTRACT
ObjectiveTo investigate the correlation between ineffective esophageal motility (IEM)and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).MethodsA total of 90 GERD patients were enrolled in our study,including 62 patients with reflux esophagitis (RE) and 28 with non-erosive reflux disease (NERD).All the patients underwent gastroscopy,24-hour esophageal pH monitoring and esophageal manometry.ResultsIn the RE group 30 (48.4％) patients were diagnosed as having IEM,which was significantly higher than the NERD group (6 patients,21.4％ ) (P＜0.05).Positive esophageal acid exposure was more often seen in patients with IEM than in those with normal esophageal motility (91.7％ v.s.57.2％,P ＜0.01 ).The values of total percentage of time with pH ＜4,percentage of reflux time in supine position,long-duration episodes ( ＞5 min) and the longest reflux time and DeMeester score were significantly higher in the IEM cases than those in the normal esophageal motility cases ( P ＜ 0.01 ),so was the values of number of reflux episodes (P ＜ 0.05).ConclusionIEM is the most common esophageal dysmotility in patients with GERD and closely related to distal esophageal acid exposure and RE.