Gastric emptying and subjective symptoms of nausea: lack of effects of a 5-hydroxytryptamine-3 antagonist ondansetron on gastric emptying in patients with gastric stasis syndrome.

Thirty-seven consecutive patients referred to a regional gastroenterology outpatient clinic with complaints of persistent nausea had a double isotopic scintigraphic evaluation of solid and liquid gastric emptying. Gastric emptying of both forms followed an exponential model. Marked day to day variation of gastric emptying was noted with a coefficient of variation of approximately 0.20 for both phases. Only 9 of 37 patients had delayed gastric emptying rate of the solid component (greater than 180 min) and no correlation between gastric stasis syndrome and nausea was established. Among these patients the median time for the stomach to empty 50% of the solid component was 261 min and 50% of the liquid component was 66 min. Treatment of these 9 patients shown to have gastric stasis syndrome and further 3 patients with diabetic gastroparesis with ondansetron, a highly selective antagonist of 5-hydroxytryptamine-3-receptors, resulted in a gastric emptying rate which was not statistically faster than after placebo (p = 0.11).