Gastric emptying in Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus before and after therapy readjustment: no influence of actual blood glucose concentration.
OBJECTIVE
Hyperglycaemia that is induced short-term slows gastric emptying in healthy subjects and patients with diabetes mellitus. Little information is available on the impact of longer-lasting, naturally occurring blood glucose increases and their reduction to euglycaemic values. We studied the relation between gastric emptying and pre-prandial and postprandial blood glucose concentrations in patients with Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus and secondary failure to respond to oral hypoglycaemic treatment (a) before readjusting hypoglycaemic therapy and (b) 1 week thereafter.


METHODS
We studied 9 female and 1 male patient (age 60-78 years, BMI 21.9-32.5 kg/m2, diabetes duration 3-33 years, HbA1c 8.8-13.2%). Gastric emptying of a radiolabelled semisolid 1168 kJ meal was recorded scintigraphically.


RESULTS
Blood glucose concentration pre-prandial and postprandial was considerably lower subsequent to than before therapy readjustment in all patients (fasting, 7.9 mmol/l+/-1.5 SD vs 11.7+/-1.7 mmol/l; 60 min postprandial, 11.7+/-2.0 vs 15.4+/-2.2 mmol/l). By contrast, gastric emptying was unchanged (residual radioactivity in stomach 50 min postprandial 65.7+/-14.1% vs 66.5+/-12.9%). There was no relation between emptying and either fasting blood glucose concentration or its postprandial increase.


CONCLUSIONS
The data do not support a major impact of actual, longer-lasting, naturally occurring blood glucose concentrations upon the rate of gastric emptying in patients with Type II diabetes.
Holzäpfel
A
A
Department of Surgery, University of Vienna, Austria.
Festa
A
A
Stacher-Janotta
G
G
Bergmann
H
H
Shnawa
N
N
Brannath
W
W
Schernthaner
G
G
Stacher
G
G
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005215:Fasting; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005746:Gastric Emptying; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D007700:Kinetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D001786:Blood Glucose; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents