Abstract

In literature several techniques are described for the measurement of gastric emptying. One of these is the double sampling technique of George which has the advantage that it enables multiple measurements of total gastric volume in one experiment. In order to estimate net gastric emptying, however, it is important to differentiate between the test meal volume present in the stomach and gastric secretion. In the present study George's technique was extended with a calculation procedure to estimate gastric secretion and net test meal outflow. An in vitro experiment was carried out which showed an accuracy of 5-10% for this method. An in vivo comparison was made with Hunt's chloride technique, which is used for estimating gastric secretion. Sixteen subjects participated in a 60 minute test with water as a test meal. Regression analysis showed a high degree of correlation (R2 = 0.99) between Hunt's method and the proposed method. The data obtained indicate that the proposed method gives a reliable estimation of net gastric emptying and is simple to do as no further measurements have to be carried out other than those needed for George's method.