Interganglionic distance in myenteric ganglia. Distance between ganglia using the 300-μm threshold comparing controls (622.3 ± 151.8 μm) and patients with severe dysmotility (427.4 ± 46.8 μm), *P = 0.0005 (A), enteric dysmotility (569.8 ± 117.7 μm) and CIPO (653.3 ± 164.7 μm), *P = 0.0076 and #P = 0.0001 (B), and apparently normal (AN; 562.1 ± 93.2 μm), inflammatory neuromyopathy (INF; 651.3 ± 190.6 μm), and degenerative neuromyopathy (DEG; 645.25 ± 134.2 μm), *P = 0.0099, #P = 0.0004, and §P = 0.0008 (C). Bottom: examples of interganglionic distance measurements using ImageJ software for a control sample (D) and a patient with severe dysmotility (E). Neuron-specific enolase (NSE) immunostaining; 500 μm final magnification.