Upper gastrointestinal sensory-motor dysfunction in diabetes mellitus

Figure 3 Left: Cross-sectional ultrasound image of the distended distal esophagus allows identification of the esophageal layers, i. e. mucosa-submucosa, muscle and adventitia layers. The white round shadow in the center is caused by the intraluminal ultrasound probe. Right: The distension-induced change in longitudinal stretch ratio is illustrated as function of the esophageal radius. The curves were obtained during smooth muscle relaxation with butylscopolamine. Exponential trend lines of the patients and controls are shown. The shortening during distension was clearly reduced in the diabetic patients.