Gastric emptying in patients with non ulcer dyspepsia (dysmotility type)

Non ulcer dyspepsia is a clinical entity characterized by chronic recurrent upper gastrointestinal symptoms in the absence of identifiable organic or systemic cause. Many such patients may have delayed gastric emptying which can easily be documented using radionuclide food markers. We evaluated gastric emptying patterns in 20 patients having non ulcer dyspepsia and 30 healthy controls. Gastric emptying was studied using indigenously prepared radiolabelled vegetarian solid food marker, the integrity of which had already been established and reported by us. Nine of the 20 (45%) non ulcer dyspepsia patients showed delayed gastric emptying. All these patients were administered cisapride and on reevaluation showed improvement in their upper gastrointestinal symptoms.