The authors examined a group of 30 young people aged 19-23 years who suffered from chronic algic dyspeptic complaints of the upper type persisting for 3-36 months. The prerequisite for inclusion into the group were normal results of endoscopy, the physical finding and standard biochemical examinations. In all these patients dynamic scintigraphy of the oesophagus was made. A quite normal finding was recorded only in three patients (10%). In the remaining 27 (90%) major or minor abnormalities were recorded. This is in marked contrast with the results of dynamic scintigraphy of the oesophagus in 19 healthy volunteers of the same age. In the latter a normal finding was obtained in 15 (79%) and deviations from it only in four subjects (21%). Dynamic scintigraphy of the oesophagus is a simple easily performed method which in a selected group of patients has become an objective criterion of their chronic complaints.