Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jan;54(1):50-54.
doi: 10.1097/MCG.0000000000001231.

Epidemiology and Diagnosis of Gastroparesis in the United States: A Population-based Study

Aslam R Syed  1   2 , Michael M Wolfe  1   3 , Jorge Calles-Escandon  1   4
Affiliations

Epidemiology and Diagnosis of Gastroparesis in the United States: A Population-based Study

Aslam R Syed et al. J Clin Gastroenterol. 2020 Jan.

Abstract

Goals: We aimed to establish the epidemiological characteristics and documentation of diagnostic workup for gastroparesis (GP).

Background: No study has used a national database to evaluate the prevalence, demographics, and associated comorbid conditions of GP, and document rates of proper diagnosis.

Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional population-based study using the Explorys Platform to determine the prevalence of GP in a large and diverse population highly representative of the US population and to examine the diagnostic approach of GP. Data collected were individual characteristics from electronic medical records (EMRs) included age, ethnicity/race, sex, diagnostic report for esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and gastric emptying study (GES).

Results: A total of 43,827,910 medical records were surveyed (1999 to 2014), of which 69,950 had a diagnosis of GP, yielding an overall prevalence of 0.16%. We identified 249,930 EMRs with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), and 2,940,280 EMR's with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), of which 11,470 (4.59%) and 38,670 (1.31%) EMR's had concurrent GP, respectively. The remainder 19,810 EMRs with a diagnosis of GP were classified as having idiopathic GP. In all three subgroups, women and Caucasians had the highest prevalence of GP. The diagnosis of GP was confirmed by both GES and EGD in 9,950 of patients (14.22%). For patients with T1DM, T2DM, or idiopathic GP, GP was confirmed by both diagnostic tests in 16.8%, 14.0%, and 13.2%, respectively.

Conclusions: Our estimated rates of prevalence of GP in T1DM and T2DM indicate that GP is not a common clinical complication in these populations. Majority of EMRs that indicated a diagnosis of GP did not include any documentation of definitive diagnostic testing (EGD and/or GES).

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Flow diagram of the breakdown of patients with gastroparesis, represented by the total cohort. T1DM indicates type 1 diabetes mellitus; T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Incidence of GP with cohorts across all age groups. GP indicates gastroparesis; IGP, idiopathic gastroparesis; T1DM, type 1 diabetes mellitus; T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Bharucha AE. Epidemiology and natural history of gastroparesis. Gastroenterol Clin North Am. 2015;1:9–19. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Liu N, Abell T. Gastroparesis updates on pathogenesis and management. Gut Liver. 2017;5:579–589. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Parkman HP, Yates K, Hasler WL, et al. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Gastroparesis Clinical Research Consortium. Clinical features of idiopathic gastroparesis vary with sex, body mass, symptom onset, delay in gastric emptying and gastroparesis severity. Gastroenterology. 2011;1:101–115. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abell TL, Bernstein RK, Cutts T, et al. Treatment of gastroparesis: a multidisciplinary clinical review. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2006;18:263–283. - PubMed
    1. Horowitz M, Harding PE, Maddox AF, et al. Gastric and oesophageal emptying in patients with type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. Diabetologia. 1989;32:151–159. - PubMed