Follow-up of Patients With Esophageal Angina

To the Editor.—  Esophageal pain is an increasingly well-recognized mimic of angina, and patients are often discharged from follow-up if the esophagus rather than the heart is the cause of symptoms. Since little is known about the long-term prognosis of this group, we traced 16 patients who were initially seen four years earlier in an emergency room setting, for reasons of anginalike pain due to esophageal disease.¹

Report of a Study—  The study group included seven males and nine females; average age at presentation was 50 years. Investigations had shown that esophageal disease was the "definite" cause of pain in eight patients ("definite" pain was defined as a positive provocation test result using acid perfusion or intravenous ergonovine maleate injection, or the development of esophageal spasm during spontaneous pain), and the "probable" cause of pain in eight others ("probable" pain was defined as two independent abnormalities of esophageal function). All