Abstract
BackgroundApproximately 0.2–1 % of children suffers from abdominal migraine (AM). Pathophysiology of AM has not been adequately studied. This study evaluated gastric motility in children with AM.MethodsSeventeen children (6 boys), within an age range of 4–15 years, referred to a tertiary care paediatric unit, North Colombo Teaching Hospital Ragama, Sri Lanka, from 2007 to 2012, were screened. Those fulfilling Rome III criteria for AM were recruited after obtaining parental consent. None had clinical or laboratory evidence of organic disorders. Twenty healthy children (8 boys), with an age range of 4–14 years, were recruited as controls. Liquid gastric emptying rate (GE) and antral motility parameters were assessed using an ultrasound method.ResultsAverage GE (41.6 % vs. 66.2 %, in controls), amplitude of antral contractions (A) (57.9 % vs. 89.0 %) and antral motility index (MI) (5.0 vs. 8.3) were lower and fasting antral area (1.8 cm2 vs. 0.6 cm2) was higher in children with AM (p < 0.01). No significant difference in the frequency of antral contractions (F) (8.8/3 min vs. 9.3/3 min, p = 0.08) was found between the two groups. Scores obtained for severity of abdominal pain had a negative correlation with A (r = −0.55, p = 0.03). Average duration of abdominal pain episodes correlated with GE (r = −0.58, p = 0.02). Negative correlations were observed between duration of AM and A (r = −0.55), F (r = −0.52), and MI (r = −0.57) (p < 0.05).ConclusionsGE and antral motility parameters were significantly lower in children with AM. A significant correlation was found between symptoms and gastric motility. These findings suggest a possible role of abnormal gastric motility in the pathogenesis of AM.
Highlights
0.2–1 % of children suffers from abdominal migraine (AM)
Since there are no studies conducted to assess the gastric motility in children with abdominal pain, we used gastric motility data obtained for Sri Lankan children with functional abdominal pain [27] to calculate the sample size
Gastric motility parameters were calculated in 17 children with abdominal migraine and 20 healthy controls
Summary
0.2–1 % of children suffers from abdominal migraine (AM). Pathophysiology of AM has not been adequately studied. Recurrent abdominal pain is a common symptom in children worldwide [1,2,3,4,5]. Majority of these children suffer from functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) [6,7,8] and only a minority have an identifiable organic cause [2, 7, 9, 10]. Previous studies have shown that approximately 10 to 12 % of children and adolescents suffer from abdominal pain predominant functional gastrointestinal disorders (AP-FGIDs) [11,12,13]. In hospital-based studies, AM is seen in 2.2 to 23 % of children with non-organic abdominal pain [7, 17,18,19,20]
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