Clinical features and severity of gastric emptying delay in Brazilian patients with gastroparesis.

CONTEXT Gastroparesis is defined by delayed gastric emptying without mechanical obstruction of the gastroduodenal junction, which has been increasingly investigated. Nevertheless, knowledge on the relationships between etiology, symptoms and degree of delayed gastric emptying is limited. OBJECTIVES The demographic, clinical and etiological features of Brazilian patients with gastroparesis were studied and the relationships between these findings and the severity of gastric emptying were determined. METHOD This is a retrospective study of medical records of 41 patients with symptoms suggestive of gastroparesis admitted between 1998 and 2011, who had evidence of abnormally delayed gastric emptying on abdominal scintigraphy. Cases with idiopathic gastroparesis were compared with those of patients with neurologic disorders or diabetes mellitus, in whom autonomic neuropathy is likely to occur. RESULTS The majority of the patients were women (75.6%) with a median age of 41 years and a long-term condition (median: 15 years). Twelve patients (29.3%) had a body mass index of less than 20 kg/m2. The most common presenting symptoms were dyspepsia (53.6%), nausea and vomiting (46.3%), weight loss (41.4%) and abdominal pain (24.3%). Regarding etiology, 16 patients had digestive disorders including idiopathic gastroparesis (n = 12), 12 had postoperative conditions, 11 had diseases of the nervous system, five had diabetes mellitus and in three cases gastroparesis was associated to a variety of conditions. In the majority of patients (65.8%) gastric emptying was severely delayed. There was no association between etiology of gastroparesis, type of presenting symptoms and the degree of delay in gastric emptying. Gastroparesis patients with proven (neurological conditions) or presumed (diabetes) nervous system involvements were significantly younger (P = 0.001), had more recent symptom onset (P = 0:03) and a trend towards more severe gastric empty (P = 0:06). There were no significant differences between this subgroup of patients and that comprising cases of idiopathic gastroparesis regarding any of the variables studied. CONCLUSIONS The demographic, clinical and etiological characteristics of Brazilian patients with gastroparesis are quite varied, but there is a predominance of women with long-standing symptoms and marked delay in gastric emptying. The type of presenting symptoms and the degree of delay in gastric emptying do not predict the etiology of gastroparesis. However, severely delayed gastric emptying in younger patients with recent symptom onset should raise the suspicion of impaired neural control of gastro-duodenal motility.