Gastrointestinal Motility and Physiology Center

The GI Physiology and Motility Center at the Ertan Digestive Disease Center is a multi-disciplinary center for management and research of gastrointestinal physiology and motility disorders in the The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School.

The center offers state of the art evaluation and management of swallowing disorders, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and functional dyspepsia, gastroparesis, intestinal bacterial overgrowth, bowel habits problems like diarrhea and constipation and pelvis floor and incontinence disorders. This includes:

• Esophageal and anorectal manometry
• Breath testing
• Esophageal pH testing
• Gastric emptying and other GI transit testing like colonic transit time
• Defecography
• Secretin stimulation test for hypergastrinemic conditions
• Protein meal stimulation hypergastrinemic conditions
• Others

We are interested in traditional medicine as well as complementary and alternative medicine in functional digestive tract disorders.

Evaluation and Management of Gastrointestinal Motility Disorders

The Gastrointestinal Motility and Physiology Lab offers the following tests for diagnosis of GI motility disorders:

• Esophageal manometry with impedance
• Breath testing for small bowel bacterial overgrowth (glucose and lactulose) and carbohydrate intolerances
• Esophageal reflux monitoring including pH and impedance
• LPR and non-acid reflux evaluation
• Timed barium swallow
• GI motility monitoring with SmartPill® for gastric emptying and GI transit time
• Anorectal manometry
• Defecography

Treatment

Once a patient’s specific gastrointestinal motility disorder is diagnosed and confirmed, he or she receives treatment from physicians who maintain special expertise and experience in that condition. Our hospital is staffed with nationally recognized specialists in esophageal motility disorders (including Barrett’s esophagus and GERD), gastric motility disorders, and pelvic floor disorders (including constipation and sphincter dysfunction).

Learn more about Gastrointestinal Motility Disorders