Gastric emptying of a liquid meal in health and duodenal ulcer disease

Abstract

In the present investigation an extension of the method of George was used, which allows the rate of emptying of the gastric content (GC) to be assessed. The aim of the study was to find out whether ther is any difference in gastric emptying rate of a liquid meal of 750 ml 10% glucose (glucose monohydrate, mol. wt. 198) between healthy subjects and duodenal ulcer patients (DU). The straight numerical volume of GC, the logarithm and the square root of GC were related to time, and these functions were compared. The correlation coefficient for the regression line for these functions showed that data both for healthy subjects and DU gave a better fit to the GC/time and GC/relationship than to a semi-logarithmic function, when the starting point at time zero was excluded. Regardless of the type of transformation of the basic data, there was no difference between healthy controls and DU as regards the regression coefficient, indicating that from 20 min after the installation of the test volume the GC is decreasing at the same rate in the two groups. When the straight numerical volume of GC was used, there was a significant difference in the extrapolated Y-intercept for the regression lines between healthy subjects and the DU, indicating an increased initial emptying in the DU patients. This was further confirmed when the volume emptied during consecutive 20-min periods was estimated. Furthermore, there was a shorter emptying time in patients with duodenal ulcer than in healthy controls.