Noninvasive endoscopic determination of intravariceal pressure in patients with portal hypertension: clinical experience with a new balloon technique.

Background And Study Aims: Recently, details of a noninvasive balloon manometry technique for endoscopic measurement of variceal pressure (VP) have been published. However, to date, only few data exist on its feasibility and virtually none on its relation to endoscopic or clinical variables of portal hypertension.

Patients And Methods: We investigated a total of 64 patients with esophageal varices using a scaled transparent balloon and a calibrated pressure manometer.