Relationship between C14 urea breath test values and solid-phase gastric emptying time in non-ulcer dyspepsia patients.
BACKGROUND
Non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) is a poorly understood syndrome often found with endoscopic evidence of gastritis; Helicobacter pylori (Hp) is a common and important cause of gastritis. In the recent literature, gastric hypomotility is thought to be a cause of NUD. Thus, this investigation studied the relationship between Hp and delayed gastric emptying in NUD patients.


METHODS
Using a radionuclide-labelled solid meal to calculate gastric emptying time (GET) of 78 NUD patients. The carbon-14 urea breath test (C14 UBT) was used to quantitate Hp infection.


RESULTS
The prevalence of Hp infection in patients with NUD reached 59%. There was a strong association of Hp infection with advanced age (p = 0.0091). There was no significant difference between solid-phase GET and C14 UBT values among three different age groups (young, middle, old) of NUD patients. There was no difference among sex, age, body weight and solid-phase GET between Hp-positive and Hp-negative NUD patients. However the solid-phase GET was significantly prolonged in patients with NUD, compared with the controls.


CONCLUSIONS
Solid-phase GET is not correlated with the C14 UBT values, and Hp gastric colonization does not account for dyspeptic syndrome in NUD patients.
Wang
Y J
YJ
Department of Internal Medicine, Army General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Chen
G H
GH
Wu
K L
KL
Lay
C S
CS
Chang
C S
CS
Poon
S K
SK
Hung
C K
CK
Kao
C H
CH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001944:Breath Tests; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D005746:Gastric Emptying; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D016480:Helicobacter pylori; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014508:Urea / Q000378:metabolism
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D014508:Urea