1711 Risk Indicators of Delayed Gastric Emptying in 296 Patients with Functional Dyspepsia

Some pts with functional dyspepsia (FD) present with delayed gastric emptying (GE). The association between this digestive motor abnormality and dyspeptic symptoms has never been investigated in a large FD population. We prospectively evaluated clinical features, dyspeptic symptoms and GE of solids in 296 strictly selected FD pts (118 M, 178 F; 39 ± 12 yrs; 62 ± 12 kg; m : SD). Epigastric pain or burning, postprandial fullness (PF), nausea and vomiting were each graded 0 to 3 according to their intensity. Including criteria were total score >3 with at least one symptom >2, in the absence of organic, systemic, metabolic diseases. GE of a mixed meal (638 kcal) was measured scintigraphically (99mTc-chicken liver) and expressed as GE rates (k; %emptied/min). Results were compared to those of 50 healthy controls (HC; 30 M, 20 F; 35 ± 12 yrs; 67 ± 11 kg). The two groups were not matched for sex (P < 0.05), age (P < 0.05) and body weight (BW) (P < 0.01). GE was delayed in FD (k = 0.47 ± 0.20) vs HC (k = 0.67 ± 0.18; F = 36.70; P < 0.001; ANOVA standardized for sex, age and BW). Relevant PF (>2) was more frequent in pts with delayed GE compared to pts without delayed GE (92.1% vs 80.2%; P < 0.01). No difference was detected in the frequency of pain (44.7% vs 54.9%), nausea (31.2% vs 28.6%) and vomiting (13.2% vs 10.4%). Logistic regression analysis showed that the presence of relevant PF and changes in BW were independently associated with delayed GE. Odd ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%-Cl) are reported in the table: