Electrogastrography before and after a high-caloric, liquid test meal in healthy volunteers and patients with severe functional dyspepsia.
BACKGROUND
The cutaneous recording of gastric electric rhythm, so-called electrogastrography (EGG), has been purported as a non-invasive method for studying patients with functional dyspepsia and unexplained nausea and vomiting. The aims of this study were to determine normal values for EGG characteristics before and after a liquid, high-caloric test meal and to investigate whether EGG could discriminate between patients with functional dyspepsia and normal controls.


METHODS
In studying 20 healthy volunteers and 10 patients with functional dyspepsia, we recorded gastric electrical activity during the 30 min before and after a liquid 1.0-1.5 kcal/ml test meal. Satiety before and after the meal was estimated on a 10-point scale. EGG was analysed regarding dominant frequency, instability of the dominant frequency, power ratio and percentage activity in the normal frequency range.


RESULTS
The mean (+/-s) caloric intake in patients with functional dyspepsia (286 +/- 160 kcal) was significantly lower (P < 0.001) than in healthy volunteers (610 +/- 211 kcal). The patients reported a more pronounced feeling of satiety before the test meal (5.6 +/- 3.2) compared to healthy volunteers (3.6 +/- 1.2, P < 0.05), but at the end of the test meal there was no difference in satiety (7.9 +/- 2.5 versus 7.7 +/- 1.0). However, none of the EGG parameters showed any difference between patients and healthy volunteers.


CONCLUSIONS
EGG before and after a high-caloric test meal showed large variation in healthy subjects and seemed to be of little value for differentiating between healthy individuals and patients with functional dyspepsia.
Holmvall
P
P
Karolinska Institutet, Dept of Medicine, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. pia.holmvall@student.ki.se
Lindberg
G
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004435:Eating / Q000502:physiology*; D004594:Electrophysiology; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019518:Postprandial Period; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013270:Stomach / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013997:Time Factors