1.   Lower oesophageal sphincter pressure was measured with the rapid pull through technique.

2.   Lower oesophageal sphincter pressure was measured as the mean from nine rapid pull through readings.

3.   Patients had significantly lower median lower oesophageal sphincter pressures than controls.

4.   Gill et al studied the effects of fundoplication on basal lower oesophageal sphincter pressures and oesophageal body motility in patients with symptoms of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease.

5.   They showed improvements in lower oesophageal sphincter pressures and peristaltic amplitudes.

6.   Secondly, the improvement in lower oesophageal sphincter pressure could simply have been an artifact produced by the surgical procedure.

7.   Gastrin is thought to actually increase the lower oesophageal sphincter pressure and therefore any effects caused by this factor would not have materially changed the results of our study.

8.   No grouping had basal upper oesophageal sphincter pressure that differed significantly from any other.

9.   The lower oesophageal sphincter pressure was measured as the difference between the sleeve pressure and the fundic pressure.

10.   Control subjects showed significantly higher resting lower oesophageal sphincter pressure compared with all degrees of oesophagitis.