Zhang WG, Linghu EQ, Chai NL, Li HK. Ling classification describes endoscopic progressive process of achalasia and successful peroral endoscopy myotomy prevents endoscopic progression of achalasia. World J Gastroenterol 2017; 23(18): 3309-3314 [PMID: 28566891 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i18.3309]
Corresponding Author of This Article
En-Qiang Linghu, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28, Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. linghuenqiang@vip.sina.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. May 14, 2017; 23(18): 3309-3314 Published online May 14, 2017. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v23.i18.3309
Ling classification describes endoscopic progressive process of achalasia and successful peroral endoscopy myotomy prevents endoscopic progression of achalasia
Wen-Gang Zhang, En-Qiang Linghu, Ning-Li Chai, Hui-Kai Li
Wen-Gang Zhang, En-Qiang Linghu, Ning-Li Chai, Hui-Kai Li, Department of Gastroenterology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Author contributions: Zhang WG analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Chai NL acquired the data; Linghu EQ and Li HK made a classification of all the achalasia patients in the present study according to Ling classification.
Institutional review board statement: The study was carried out under the ethics committee approval from the Chinese PLA General Hospital (Beijing, China).
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We declare that we have no financial or personal relationships with other people or organizations that can inappropriately influence our work.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: En-Qiang Linghu, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28, Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100853, China. linghuenqiang@vip.sina.com
Telephone: +86-13501233558 Fax: +86-10-66937485
Received: January 4, 2017 Peer-review started: January 5, 2017 First decision: January 19, 2017 Revised: February 1, 2017 Accepted: March 30, 2017 Article in press: March 30, 2017 Published online: May 14, 2017 Processing time: 131 Days and 5.3 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Achalasia is a progressive disease, as verified by manometric and radiographic findings. Thus, we speculated that this progressive process could be visualized by endoscopy. We have proposed the Ling classification for achalasia on the basis of the endoscopic morphological severity of the esophagus. This study supports the hypothesis that the Ling classification portrays the progressive process of achalasia. Preliminary evidence suggests that successful peroral endoscopic myotomy (POEM) has the ability to prevent endoscopic progression of achalasia. Moreover, this study suggests that the Ling classification may serve as a criterion for endoscopic assessment of achalasia and will be useful for long-term endoscopic follow-up of post-POEM achalasia.
