Managing GI disorders of aging: noncardiac chest pain and rectal bleeding.

Esophageal manometry is crucial in the evaluation of patients suspected of having angina pectoris, but in whom there is no discernible evidence of cardiac disease. A frequent problem is whether to attribute bleeding to a vascular ectasia or to diverticulosis, when bleeding from the lesion is neither demonstrated by angiography nor observed by colonoscopy. This diagnostic difficulty is compounded by the frequent occurrence of both disorders in the elderly.