title: Impaired gastric emptying and altered intragastric meal distribution in diabetes mellitus related to autonomic neuropathy?
abstract: Previous studies in diabetic patients suggested a relationship between delayed gastric emptying and increased ingesta retention in either proximal or distal stomach, but the determinants underlying these abnormalities remained obscure. We aimed at assessing the impact of cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy, blood glucose concentration, long-term glycemic control, and other factors in 34 type I and 43 type II diabetic patients (ages 21-67 and 34-81 years, respectively). Emptying was slower (P < 0.04) in type I diabetic patients than in 20 healthy control subjects (ages 23-63 years). Patients with autonomic neuropathy (N = 45) had slower gastric emptying (P < 0.02) and retained more in the distal stomach (P < 0.0001) than patients without neuropathy (N = 32). Multiple regression analyses revealed that slow emptying and increased distal retention were significantly associated with autonomic neuropathy (P < 0.043, P < 0.0002), whereas blood glucose, glycemic control, diabetes duration, age, and other factors had no discernible influence. Thus, both slow emptying and increased distal ingesta retention seem primarily referable to autonomic neuropathy.
authors.affiliation: Psychophysiology Unit at the Department of Surgery, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stacher
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lenglinger
authors.forename: Helmar
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bergmann
authors.forename: Christa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Brannath
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Festa
authors.forename: Susi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Meghdadi
authors.forename: Giselheid
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stacher-Janotta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001342:Autonomic Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001786:Blood Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003922:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 1 / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003929:Diabetic Neuropathies / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004063:Digestion; D005260:Female; D005746:Gastric Emptying; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose