A study of gastric emptying in gastric and duodenal ulcers

Abstract

In the examination of gastric emptying using radioisotopic techniques, three areas of interest were established, i.e. the entire gastric, proximal gastric and antral area, and gastric emptying abnormalities in cases of gastric and duodenal ulcers and their mechanism were studied by analyzing gastric emptying curves obtained from these areas. Results were summerized as follows: In highly localized gastric ulcers at active stage, compared to healthy subjects, gastric emptying in the entire gastric area was accelerated, the movement of the contents from the proximal gastric area to the antral area was accelerated, and the movement from the proximal to the antral was greater than that from the antral to the duodenum during the first three minutes after start of the measurement. Hence, in highly localized gastric ulcers at active stage, it is believed that gastric emptying in the entire is accelerated as the movement from the proximal to the antral is accelerated. In low localized gastric ulcers at active stage, compared to healthy subjects, gastric emptying in the entire was not observed in the first minute and gastric emptying was delayed once it started, the movement from the proximal to the antral was fast as in healthy subjects in the first 17 minutes or so, and in the first seven minutes, the movement from the proximal to the antral was greater than that from the antral to the duodenum. Hence, in low localized gastric ulcers at active stage, it is believed that gastric emptying in the entire becomes delayed as the gastric emptying activity in the antral is lowered. In duodenal ulcers at active stage, compared to healthy subjects, gastric emptying in the entire was accelerated, the movement from the proximal to the antral was accelerated, and during the measurement, the movement from the antral to the duodenum was greater than that from the proximal to the antral. Hence, in duodenal ulcers at active stage, it is believed that gastric emptying in the entire is accelerated as gastric emptying ability of the entire becomes excited along with that in the proximal and antral. At healing stage, gastric emptying was found to be closer to that of healthy subjects than at active stage.