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We evaluated intragastric food distribution and antral motor activity in patients with functional dyspepsia.A standard gastric emptying test and dynamic imaging of the antrum were used to characterize gastric antral motility disturbances and to correlate them with total and compartmental gastric emptying in 25 dyspeptic patients.We found a 40% prevalence of gastroparesis in functional dyspepsia. Solid gastric emptying delay is indicated by a prolonged lag phase and an increase in frequency and amplitude of gastric contractions, resulting in nonexpulsive antral contractions and/or antropyloric dyscoordination. Food retention in the distal stomach and antral distention appears to account for patients' dyspeptic symptoms.This study demonstrates that scintigraphy not only detects abnormalities of food distribution in the stomach but also provides information on antral motor activity noninvasively. Dynamic antral scintigraphy and compartmental gastric emptying are useful tools to define the pathophysiology of dyspeptic patients with or without gastroparesis.

In this study, food distribution in the stomach and gastric antral motor activity in patients with longstanding diabetes have been evaluated. With use of a standard gastric emptying test with an acquisition protocol and a refined Fourier algorithm to analyze the data, antral contractions have been characterized and gastric motility parameters were correlated to gastric retention in 20 diabetic patients with or without gastroparesis and in 10 healthy subjects. The results of this study show that, in longstanding diabetes, gastric emptying retardation is accounted for by a retention of food in the proximal stomach, which is reflected by a prolonged lag phase as well as by a reduction in antral motor activity that is determined by a decrease in the amplitude of the antral contractions. This study demonstrates that scintigraphy can noninvasively characterize abnormalities of food distribution in the stomach and provides information similar to that obtained from manometry.