Abstract

Background: Recently, non-invasive techniques such as 3 dimensional ultrasonography (3DUS) have been developed to assess gastric wall characteristics and to investigate their relationship with upper gastrointestinal sensations. To date, no head-to-head comparison has been carried out between the barostat and the 3DUS technique.

Aim: To compare barostat and 3DUS and to investigate the relationship between gastric volumes and sensations in patients with functional dyspepsia and in healthy subjects.

Patients and methods: Gastric accommodation was studied in 15 patients with functional dyspepsia and in 15 healthy subjects after ingestion of a liquid nutrient (300 kcal) using barostat and 3DUS in random order for 60 min. Proximal gastric relaxation was measured using barostat and gastric volume using 3DUS. Change in gastric volume, acquired by 3DUS, was expressed as total gastric volume/proximal volume ratio (TGV/PV) and compared with changes in barostat volume (fundal accommodation).

Results: Patients with functional dyspepsia showed a smaller change in proximal gastric volume than healthy subjects using barostat (mean (SD) 82 (61) v 205 (79) ml, p<0.01) and 3DUS (118 (41) v 199 (39) ml, p<0.01). Dysaccommodation of the proximal stomach was observed in 7 of 15 (46%) patients using the barostat technique. 10 of 15 (67%) patients were found to have an abnormal change in proximal gastric volume using TGV/PV ratio. At 5 min postprandially, fullness was related to the change in distal gastric volume (r = 0.51, p = 0.006) in the 3DUS study, whereas no relationship was observed in the barostat study.

Conclusion: 3DUS is a feasible non-invasive technique to measure gastric volumes and shows a distinct overlap with barostat data in healthy subjects and patients with functional dyspepsia. Fullness relates to distal gastric volumes when assessed by non-invasive 3DUS.