Background: Ultrasound Tissue Doppler imaging (US-TDI) has been used to diagnose regional wall motion (WM) abnormalities in coronary artery disease, but has not been applied to oropharyngeal diseases. This study aimed first to validate an US-TDI method to assess cervical esophageal (CE) WM, and secondly to use the method to evaluate CE WM in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD). Methods: First, we enrolled 22 healthy men (mean age: 59.7 years) who all underwent both US-TDI and videofluoroscopy (VF) and then esophageal high-resolution manometry (HRM) in the same week. We evaluated the reproducibility of the US-TDI, and the relationship between US-TDI and other modalities (VF and HRM). Second, we enrolled 56 mild OD patients (mean age: 58.0 years) and age- and sex-matched healthy controls. Difference in CE WM between these groups was evaluated by US-TDI. Results: All healthy subjects underwent US-TDI, VF, and HRM successfully, with a sufficiently high reproducibility coefficient for this method, and significant correlation between US-TDI and VF/HRM parameters. US-TDI showed mean time to open CE wall and mean velocity of CE wall opening significantly differed between patients and healthy controls (P<0.01). Conclusion: We have developed a US-TDI method for easily assessing CE WM in daily practice, and also found significant differences in CE WM between mild OD patients and healthy controls.