Postcibal gastric emptying of pancreatin pellets: effects of dose and meal oil.

To treat pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, physicians often prescribe enterically coated pellets of pancreatin to be taken with meals. The pellets are only partially effective in correcting the digestion and absorption of fat. We sought to determine in normal subjects whether emptying of pellets from the postcibal stomach was dose-related and whether the gastric emptying of lipophilic Creon-20 or Pancrease was altered by the presence or the absence of oil in a meal. Gastric emptying of pellets surface-labeled with 113mIn or 99mTc was followed with a gamma camera for 300 min after isocaloric meals. From our observations, we concluded that gastric emptying of 0.28-1.12 g of 1-mm or 2-mm pellets was dose-related (P < 0.01) and emptying of neither Creon-20 nor Pancrease was much affected by oil in the meal.