New study probes muscle fibrosis in swallowing disorder

Copied word for word from the study's registry entry, so the wording is the study team's rather than ours.

Inclusion Criteria: * Male or female patients, age 18 and above. * Evaluated by Emory Digestive Diseases Clinic, Emory Motility Lab, the Emory Endoscopy Unit, or Emory Surgery Department starting October 1, 2020. * Has a diagnosis of achalasia or an esophageal motility disorder with confirmed evaluation by one of the following modalities: functional lumen imaging probe (FLIP) or high-resolution esophageal manometry (for Aim 1) * Undergoing a diagnostic Functional Lumen Imaging Probe (FLIP) study at Emory University Hospital with anesthesia assistance (for Aim 1) * Undergoing Heller myotomy or per-oral endoscopic myotomy for the treatment of their esophageal motility disorder (for Aim 2) * 8 healthy control esophageal samples will be obtained from the NDRI donor program for Aim 2. Exclusion Criteria: * Patients younger than 18 years old * Pregnant women * Prisoners * Non-English-speaking patients - the rationale is that the symptom characterization and outcome data are measured on detailed and fairly lengthy (5-7 pages) questionnaires written in English with some medical terms. These are standardized questionnaires with no short forms available. * Cognitively impaired adults unable to provide informed consent * Cardiac disease in the form of - arrhythmia requiring intracardiac defibrillator (ICD) or pacemaker, baseline bradycardia with HR \<60 or tachycardia with a heart rate (HR) \> 90, congestive heart failure with ejection fraction \<35%, history of myocardial infarction, baseline mean arterial pressure (MAP) \<65 or systolic blood pressure (BP) \>140, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, urinary retention requiring the use of foley catheterization (including intermittent use), narrow-angle glaucoma, myasthenia gravis, glomerular filtration rate (GFR) \<60 \[exclusions for Aim 1 only\]