Short- and medium-term reproducibility of gastric emptying of a solid meal determined by a low dose of 13C-octanoic acid and nondispersive isotope-selective infrared spectrometry.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the reproducibility of a modified 13C breath test-based measurement of solid phase gastric emptying (GE) within the frames of a simple-repeated measure study protocol.


METHODS
Twelve healthy subjects (6 females and 6 males, mean age 24.9+/-0.7 years) were recruited to undergo three identical GE examinations. In six subjects the first two examinations were performed 2 d apart, and the third session was carried out at a median interval of 19.5 d (range 18-20 d) from the second one. In another six subjects the first two measurements were taken 20 d apart (median, range: 17-23 d), whereas the third session took place 2 d after the second one. Probes of expiratory air collected before and during six hours after intake of a solid meal (378 kcal) labelled with 75 microL (68 mg) 13C-octanoic acid, were measured for 13CO2 enrichment with the nondispersive isotope-selective infrared spectrometry NDIRS apparatus.


RESULTS
Taking coefficients of variation for paired examinations into account, the short-term reproducibility of the GE measurement was slightly but not significantly better than the medium-term one: 7.7% and 11.2% for the lag phase (T-Lag), 7.3% and 10.9% for the gastric half emptying time (T1/2). The least differences in GE parameters detectable at P=0.05 level in the 12 paired examinations were 9.6 and 15.6 min for T-Lag, 11.6 and 19.7 min for T1/2 by a two-day or two to three-week time gap, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The low-cost modification of the breath test involving a lower dose of 13C-octanoic acid and NDIRS, renders good short- and medium-term reproducibility, as well as sensitivity of the measurement of gastric emptying of solids.
Department of Basic Biomedical Science, School of Pharmacy, Medical University of Silesia, 3 Kasztanowa street, PL-41-205 Sosnowiec, Poland. akj@slam.katowice.pl
Anna
A
Kasicka-Jonderko
Magdalena
M
Kamińska
Krzysztof
K
Jonderko
Olga
O
Setera
Barbara
B
Błońska-Fajfrowska
D000328:Adult; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000379:methods*; D002210:Caprylates / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005502:Food; D005746:Gastric Emptying; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D013997:Time Factors
D002210:Caprylates; D002247:Carbon Isotopes; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; C031492:octanoic acid