Cheney Completes Checkup

Vice President Dick Cheney has a mild case of esophagitis and some small dilation of the arteries behind both knees, his office said Saturday after he completed a two-part annual physical.

Cheney, 64, was at George Washington University Hospital for a colonoscopy, an upper endoscopy and vascular screening. The procedures completed his yearly medical checkup.

In the first part of the exam, about a week earlier, an annual heart checkup produced good news for Cheney, who has had four heart attacks, though none since he became vice president in 2001.

The latest tests found Cheney’s colon to be normal, spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said in a statement.

The endoscopy “indicated mild esophagitis” or swelling or irritation of the esophagus, the tube that leads from the back of the mouth to the stomach. The statement did not elaborate on the cause of Cheney’s condition.

Esophagitis frequently occurs when acid-containing fluid flows from the stomach back into the esophagus.

Cheney’s vascular exam “identified small, dilated segments of the arteries behind both knees.”

The vice president “is awaiting final recommendations from his medical team,” the statement said.

A website run by the Harvard Medical School said acid reflex was “by far the most common cause of esophagitis” and that it often could be prevented by “some very simple measures” such as avoiding heavy meals. It was typically treated with antiacid medications.

Cheney walked briskly out of the hospital Saturday and waved to the assembled media.