title: Oesophageal dysmotility in systemic sclerosis: comparison of HRCT and scintigraphy.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare oesophageal abnormalities observed in high-resolution CT with radionuclide transit in patients with systemic sclerosis. 76 patients with systemic sclerosis were evaluated by high-resolution CT and oesophageal transit scintigraphy. Residual activity > or =20% (in relation to peak activity) at 15 s after the beginning of the swallow of the labelled liquid (in supine position) was considered indicative of oesophageal dysfunction. Supra-aortic and infra-aortic oesophageal coronal diameters were measured in high-resolution CT. Oesophageal dilatation was deemed present when the diameters exceeded 10 mm. 19 patients (25%) had supra-aortic oesophageal dilatation and 48 patients (63.1%) had infra-aortic dilatation. The prevalence of radionuclide transit delay was 77.6%. All patients (19/19) with supra-aortic dilatation had oesophageal dysfunction, compared with 70.2% (40/57) of the patients with no supra-aortic dilatation (p = 0.004). Oesophageal dysfunction was present in 97.9% (47/48) of patients with infra-aortic dilatation, compared with 42.9% (12/28) in patients without it (p < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves have demonstrated that the supra-aortic and infra-aortic diameters had good discriminatory capacity for oesophageal dysfunction in systemic sclerosis (area under the curve, 95% confidence interval: 0.80, 0.70-0.89 and 0.92, 0.86-0.98, respectively). There is a clinically significant association between oesophageal dysmotility and high-resolution CT findings of oesophageal coronal dilatation. The evaluation of infra-aortic oesophageal coronal diameter can provide additional useful information about the functional and anatomic conditions of the oesophagus in systemic sclerosis.
authors.affiliation: Serviço de Radiologia, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Rua Ramiro Barcelos 2350, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Pitrez
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bredemeier
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Xavier
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Capobianco
authors.forename: V G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Restelli
authors.forename: M V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Vieira
authors.forename: D H C
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Ludwig
authors.forename: J C T
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Brenol
authors.forename: A P A
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Furtado
authors.forename: L M B
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Fonseca
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gutfilen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015154:Esophageal Motility Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods