Impaired gastric motility and its relationship to gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with chronic renal failure.
BACKGROUND
Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are common in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF), but the pathogenesis of these symptoms is unclear. Gastric motor function in CRF patients remains controversial, and the correlation between GI symptoms and gastric motility is also unclear. The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship between gastric motility and GI symptoms in patients with CRF.


METHODS
Gastric motility was evaluated with cutaneously recorded electrogastrographs (EGGs) and gastric emptying of a solid meal, using 13C-octanoic acid breath testing, in 21 patients with predialysis endstage CRF and in 21 matched healthy controls. GI symptom severity was quantified in all patients.


RESULTS
The CRF patients had a significantly lower incidence of normogastria postprandially and a lower power ratio than did healthy controls on the EGGs, with the CRF patients showing delayed gastric emptying. Three patients with normal gastric motility had no GI symptoms, and ten patients with both abnormal EGG and delayed gastric emptying had significantly higher GI symptom scores than the patients without abnormalities.


CONCLUSIONS
The patients with CRF showed gastric hypomotility, including impaired gastric myoelectrical activity and delayed gastric emptying. Gastric hypomotility appears to be an important factor in the generation of GI symptoms in patients with CRF.
Hirako
Makoto
M
Department of Internal Medicine and Pathophysiology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences, 1 Kawasumi, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan.
Kamiya
Takeshi
T
Misu
Naoko
N
Kobayashi
Yuka
Y
Adachi
Hiroshi
H
Shikano
Michiko
M
Matsuhisa
Eriko
E
Kimura
Genjiro
G
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005746:Gastric Emptying / Q000502:physiology*; D041981:Gastrointestinal Tract / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male