Gastric emptying rates in idiopathic dyspepsia with and without hunger pain

It has been previously observed that in dyspeptic patients with hunger pain, that is, with pain suggestive of the presence of peptic ulcer, only 12% had an endoscopically demonstrated ulcer, the remaining 88% showing absence of important macroscopically detectable lesions (idiopathic dyspepsia). In order to investigate the possibility of a relationship between hunger pain and some alteration in gastroduodenal motility, the gastric emptying rates of patients presenting idiopathic dyspepsia with and without hunger pain were compared with those of normal control subjects. The study was conducted in 40 patients presenting idiopathic dyspepsia, 20 with and 20 without hunger pain, and 30 voluntary apparently normal control subjects. The patients and the controls ingested, with a standard breakfast, a gelatine capsule containing 10 radioopaque polyurethane markers, and the gastric emptying of the markers was evaluated taking 3 x-ray films of the abdomen at 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5 hours after the breakfast. The gastric emptying rates of the markers were significantly higher in the patients with hunger pain, and significantly lower in the patients without hunger pain, than in the normal control subjects. In idiopathic dyspepsia with and without hunger pain there are, respectively, abnormally increased and abnormally decreased gastric emptying rates of undigestible solid markers. Our findings could help to better understand the pathogenesis of those different types of dyspepsia and, consequently, to improve their treatment.

A new questionnaire for the diagnosis of dyspepsia

A questionnaire to diagnose dyspepsia was created. The questionnaire consists in 9 items written in very clear and understandable language and related to the cardinal symptoms of dyspepsia (easy sensation of fullness, postprandial epigastric fullness, heartburn, regurgitation, nausea, vomiting, postprandial epigastric pain, excessive belching and hunger pain). The questionnaire also includes a system of quantification levels for each symptom, taking into account its frequency and intensity of presentation in the previous two weeks: 1 point, if the symptom did not bother at all or only infrequently; 2 points, if it bothered only a little; 3 points, if it bothered moderately; and 4 points, if it bothered a lot. The questionnaire was applied to 40 patients with dyspepsia and 20 healthy control subjects, and their answers were compared with data obtained by anamnesis. For the comparison, three criteria were considered to define, with the questionnaire, the existence of dyspepsia: A) Presence of a minimum of 2 symptoms, and at least one of them with a quantification level of 2 points or more; B) Presence of a minimum of 2 symptoms, and at least one of them with a quantification level of 3 points or more; and C) Presence of a minimum of 2 symptoms with a quantification level of 3 points or more. Of these three criteria, criterion B was found to be the best, and following it, the sensitivity and specificity of the questionnaire were, respectively, 95% and 100%. The new questionnaire will be, for sure, a useful instrument to accurately investigate dyspepsia, specially in large population groups