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72 Year Old Female With CAD And Drug-controlled HBP And High Cholesterol. Food Getting Stuck In Throat. Reason?

Posted on Mon, 8 Apr 2013

Question: I am a 72 year old female with CAD and drug-controlled HBP and high cholesterol.I have occasional food painfully stuck in the esophagus in the sternum area, especially with dry chicken breast and soft bread, If it is really bad,I can't even get liquids down. After a time, I can feel peristalsis gradually pushing the food down. I blamed statins action on smooth muscle and it seemed to improve when the dose was reduced.Now it is starting to occur more often again. When it is very bad my vision dims and twice I have momentarily blacked out. Recently, while I was on a Holter monitor in the hospital, my lunch sandwich got stuck and my pulse rate went down to 40 momentarily, setting off the monitor alarm.
Have you seen or heard of statins being involved in this?
Thank you.

Answered by Dr. Dr.P.Ratnakar Kini (4 hours later)

Hi,
Thanks for posting your query.
I am Dr.Ratnakar Kini and I am pleased to answer your query.

I have never seen or heard statins causing difficulty in swallowing.
I would suggest you to have an upper GI endoscopy, a barium swallow and an esophageal manometry done for evaluation.

I hope that answers your question.
If you have no more questions, kindly rate this service.
Regards,
Dr.Ratnakar Kini

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar