Impaired gastric myolectrical activity in patients with cystic fibrosis.
BACKGROUND
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is frequently associated with gastrointestinal complaints that can be due to gastrointestinal dysmotility. Electrogastrography (EGG) is an attractive, non-invasive procedure to assess gastric electric activity. The aims of our study were to investigate EGG abnormalities in pancreatic sufficient and pancreatic insufficient CF patients, and to examine whether EGG correlates with gastric emptying as assessed by scintigraphy.


METHODS
EGG was performed in 23 CF patients (12 pancreatic sufficient patients, 11 pancreatic insuffficient) by using cutaneous recording pre- and postprandialy. Pre- and postpostprandial EGG indexes were compared to 19 healthy control patients. Gastric emptying was assessed simultaneously by gastric scintigraphy in 11 of the 23 CF patients. Six patients underwent a repeated scintigraphy recording following a month of treatment with cisapride.


RESULTS
Abnormal patterns of EGG were found in 78.3% of CF patients compared to 31.3% of controls during fasting (p<or=0.003) and in 56.5% of CF patients compared to 15.7% in healthy controls postprandially (p<or=0.018). In the CF patients, dysmotility consisted mostly of bradygastria during both fasting (16 of 18 with abnormal EGG) and postprandially (12 of 13 [92.3%]). Gastric emptying results on scintigraphy were in agreement with EGG results in 9 of 11 (two normal and seven pathological). Five of the six patients treated with cisapride (83.3%) showed significant improvement in EGG indexes.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that EGG abnormalities are frequently found in CF patients. The similar rate of EGG and gastric scintigraphy abnormalities suggests that EGG may be a useful clinical tool in CF patients.
Bentur
Lea
L
Pediatric Pulmonary Unit, Meyer Children's Hospital of Haifa, Rambam Medical Center, POB 9602, Haifa 31096, Israel. l_bentur@rambam.health.go.il <l_bentur@rambam.health.go.il>
Hino
Bayan
B
Shamir
Raanan
R
Elias
Nael
N
Hartman
Corina
C
Eshach-Adiv
Orly
O
Berkowitz
Drora
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D005260:Female; D005746:Gastric Emptying / Q000502:physiology*; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016065:Myoelectric Complex, Migrating / Q000502:physiology; D010186:Pancreatic Function Tests / Q000379:methods; D019518:Postprandial Period; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging