Oesophageal manometry : design and evaluation of measurement systems

• The aim of this study was to investigate the technical characteristics of oesophageal manometry systems and to improve the performance of these systems.The investigation of the characteristics of oesophageal manometry systems with non-perfused catheters or catheters perfused with a flow generated by a syringe pump did not show properties which fullfilled the requirements for accurate pressure measurements. The bandwidth of the pressure mesurement system was limited by the high compliance of the syringe perfusion pump. The characteristics of perfused systems were improved by the design of a low-compliance perfusion pump. The frequency characteristics of a pressure measurement system utilizing the low-compliance perfusion pump seemed to be determined by the properties of the cathetermanometer system. The frequency content of oesophageal peristaltic pressure was studied by use of a measurement system including the low-compliance perfusion pump. This investigation showed that a bandwidth of about 8 Hz or more is necessary for accurate measurements, which bandwidth can only be obtained with a low-compliance system. In a clinical study a non-perfused system and a system perfused with a syringe pump were compared simultaneously to a system with the low-compliance perfusion pump. The non-perfused system and the system perfused with the syringe pump gave lower peristaltic and sphincter pressure amplitudes than the system with the low-compliance perfusion pump. Since the oesophageal sphincter pressure varies in different radial directions, a pressure transducer has been devised, the mechanical design of which gives an integration of a radial pressure profile. The transducer has a linear static and dynamic transfer function.

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