Dysphagia in a young female patient: it’s not always that simple

Abstract

A 42-year- old female patient was referred to our gastroenterology department with a 4-month history of weekly symptoms of dysphagia for solids and liquids. The patient also reported occasional symptoms of food impaction and heartburn. She denied nausea, vomiting, weight loss or a recent change in bowel habits. The patient was not under any medication. Medical or surgical history was unremarkable. There was no family history of gastrointestinal cancer. Physical examination was normal, and laboratory tests did not reveal anaemia or other abnormalities. She underwent an oesophagogastroduodenoscopy, and the oesophagus is shown in figure 1. Biopsies were performed in the upper and lower parts of the oesophagus and the result is shown in figure 2. Macroscopically and histologically, the stomach was normal. On the same day, the patient underwent a high-resolution manometry (HRM) (Medtronic 36-channel solid-state catheter) with 10 supine liquid swallows (5 mL water each) with the following findings (figure 3).