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Videofluoroscopic Evaluation of Swallowing in Chagas’ Disease

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Abstract

Dysphagia is the most common digestive symptom reported by patients with Chagas’ disease. The condition results from abnormalities of esophageal motility. Our hypothesis is that there are also alterations of oral and pharyngeal transit during swallowing. We studied by videofluoroscopy the oral and pharyngeal transit during swallowing in 17 patients with dysphagia, a positive serologic test for Chagas’ disease, and radiologic demonstration of esophageal involvement. The study also included 15 asymptomatic healthy volunteers. Each subject swallowed in duplicate 5 and 10 ml of liquid and paste barium boluses. Chagas’ disease patients had a longer oropharyngeal transit with the 5-ml liquid bolus (p = 0.03), and a longer oral transit (p = 0.01) and pharyngeal transit (p = 0.04) with the 10-ml liquid bolus than controls. There was no difference between patients and controls with swallows of the 5-ml paste bolus. With swallows of the 10-ml paste bolus, the oropharyngeal transit (p = 0.05), pharyngeal transit (p = 0.04), pharyngeal clearance (p = 0.02), and UES opening (p = 0.01) took a longer amount of time in Chagas’ disease patients than in controls. We conclude that the duration of pharyngeal transit is longer in patients with Chagas’ disease than in normal subjects, especially with a bolus of pasty consistency and a volume of 10 ml.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Medical School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, 14049-900, Brazil

    Carla Manfredi dos Santos, Rachel Aguiar Cassiani & Roberto Oliveira Dantas

  2. Rua Coronel Joaquim Alves 1116, Batatais, SP, 14300-000, Brazil

    Carla Manfredi dos Santos

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  1. Carla Manfredi dos Santos
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  2. Rachel Aguiar Cassiani
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  3. Roberto Oliveira Dantas
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Correspondence to Roberto Oliveira Dantas.

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dos Santos, C.M., Cassiani, R.A. & Dantas, R.O. Videofluoroscopic Evaluation of Swallowing in Chagas’ Disease. Dysphagia 26, 361–365 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-010-9321-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00455-010-9321-1

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