Impaired drinking capacity in patients with functional dyspepsia: intragastric distribution and distal stomach volume

Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2007 Dec;19(12):968-76. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2982.2007.00971.x. Epub 2007 Jul 18.

Abstract

The water drink test is a good tool to evoke dyspeptic symptoms. To what extent these symptoms are related to altered gastric distribution is not clear. Therefore, we determined gastric volumes after a drink test using SPECT. After a baseline scan 20 healthy volunteers (HV) and 18 patients with functional dyspepsia (FD) underwent a drink test (100 mL min(-1)) followed by five scans up to 2 h. Dyspeptic symptoms were scored before every scan. A Wilcoxon signed rank test (P < 0.05) and a mixed effects model were used for statistical analyses. Fasting volumes were significantly higher in FD compared to HV for total, proximal and distal stomach (P < 0.001). Functional dyspeptic patients ingested significantly less water (P < 0.001) and had an impaired filling of the distal part of the stomach (P = 0.001) after the drink test. In FD, bloating (prox. 80%, dist. 56%), pain (prox. 87%, dist. 62%) and fullness (prox. 80%, dist. 59%) were determined more by proximal stomach volume rather than distal stomach volume. These data suggest that drinking capacity is mainly determined by antral volume, with a reduced antral filling in FD compared to HV. The persisting symptoms of bloating, pain and fullness in FD are predominantly associated with proximal stomach volume.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Drinking / physiology*
  • Dyspepsia / diagnostic imaging*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Stomach / diagnostic imaging*
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon