A 43-Year-Old Man Is Evaluated for Retrosternal Discomfort and Dysphagia

question 341

Multiple Choice

A 43-year-old man is evaluated for retrosternal discomfort and dysphagia for the past several months.  He smokes a pack of cigarettes daily and drinks alcohol on weekends.  His BMI is 32.8 kg/m².  Physical examination is unremarkable.  Esophageal manometry is performed; after a single swallow of 5 mL of water, the tracings appear as shown in the image below. Which of the following is the most likely diagnosis in this patient?

• A)Achalasia
• B)Cricopharyngeal dysfunction
• C)Diffuse esophageal spasm
• D)Esophageal stricture
• E)Systemic sclerosis

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Definitions:

Garbage In / Garbage Out

A principle stating that poor quality input will result in poor quality output, particularly in the context of computers and software.

Obtain Data

The process of collecting information or measurements relevant to a particular question or problem.

Inferential Statistics

The branch of statistics focused on drawing conclusions and making predictions about a population based on a sample.

Average GPA

The calculated mean of grade point averages from a group of students, representing the average academic achievement.