Esophageal Motility and Airway Defenses Among Infants

Overview

Feeding difficulties and airway related consequences contribute significantly to the infant mortality and morbidity. Some of these problems may be dependent on neural control and muscular function. Prematurity, congenital anomalies and perinatal depression represent three important conditions in infants, that may have feeding and airway difficulties.Development of motility of the foregut and the adaptation during normal and disease in developing infants is unclear.

With the aid of small clinical research funding from the NIDDK, in this proposal, we have developed methods to safely evaluate foregut motility in relation to breathing among high risk infants. We are using simultaneous esophageal motility studies, swallowing and respiratory measurements in this evaluation.

Conditions

Eligibility