A modified sonographic technique for assessment of gastric emptying of liquid.
OBJECTIVE
Ultrasound scanning is replacing scintigraphy in studies of gastric emptying of liquid, but both have considerable day-to-day variability. This study describes a modified ultrasound technique for assessing gastric emptying of liquid, and evaluates the inter- and intraindividual variation in emptying time.


METHODS
On different days, each of 12 healthy volunteers had meals of 350 ml broth. The antral area was measured at sonography 5 times before the meal as a baseline, and every 1-4 min after the meal. The time until the antral area had decreased to 150% of baseline (T150) was determined and used as surrogate expression of gastric emptying time.


RESULTS
The mean T150 for a broth meal was 12.6 min (range 5-21) and 13.5 min (6-23) (first and second meal, respectively). The standard deviation of the differences between the 12 pairs of repeated measurements was 3.1 min and the coefficient of variation was 24%.


CONCLUSIONS
Ultrasound monitoring of antral size after a liquid meal is a well suited method for assessing gastric emptying of liquid.
Pedersen
J F
JF
Department of Radiology, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. jfpe@glostruphosp.kbhamt.dk
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005746:Gastric Emptying; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D011706:Pyloric Antrum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000502:physiology; D013270:Stomach / Q000502:physiology; D014463:Ultrasonography