Review Article

The Pain System in Oesophageal Disorders: Mechanisms, Clinical Characteristics, and Treatment

Table 1

Sensitivity change to different stimuli in various oesophageal disorders relative to healthy controls.

DisorderAcid and/or capsaicinDistensionHeatCentral sensitisation

ERD [15] [82] [10] [10]
NERD [12]; in pH−, in pH+ [83] [12] [12] [12]
Barrett’s oesophagus [8385] [64] [64] [64]
FCP/FH [86] [8789]? [48, 65]
Eosinophilic oesophagitis [62] [62] [62] [62]

: increased; : highly increased; : decreased; : no change; ?: insufficient data; ERD: erosive reflux disease; NERD: nonerosive reflux disease; FCP: functional chest pain; FH: functional heartburn; pH−/+: negative/positive 24-hour oesophageal pH monitoring (positive if time with pH < 4 is above 5%).