Abstract

Patients with Parkinson's disease often experience dysphagia, in which case food seems to be blocked in the throat. The patient must swallow over and over to get it down. A radionuclide solid phase esophageal motility study was conducted to evaluate esophageal function of patients with Parkinson's disease. Twenty-seven patients and 27 age-matched normal volunteers were studied. Each subject was placed in the supine position above a gamma camera linked to a computer and was given a 4 mL bolus of solid gelatin containing 75 MBq Tc-99m pertechnetate. Data were acquired in the list mode. A computer routine was used to calculate the total mean transit time, the residual fraction after the first swallow, and the retrograde index. The preliminary results suggest: 1) patients with Parkinson's disease display significantly slowed transit time when compared with normal age-matched controls, and 2) dysphagia of Parkinson's disease may improve with medication. A solid phase esophageal motility study may be used as a monitor of dysphagia in patients with Parkinson's disease in our future studies.