[The feasibility of ultrasonography for the evaluation of stomach motility disorders].

The value of measuring gastric emptying time by ultrasonography in disorders of gastric motility was first assessed in a control group (26 men, 24 women; mean age 51 [23-83] years. Some were healthy volunteers, others were patients without any gastrointestinal disease, the results serving to standardize the method (planimetry of the antrum; 300 ml water as test substance). The mean gastric emptying time (GET) was 24.9 +/- 4.7 min. After this the method was applied in 48 patients (29 men, 19 women; mean age 57.5 [15-90] years) with diabetes type I (n = 14) or II (n = 34) and 59 patients (18 men and 41 women; mean age 54.8 [26-74] years) with functional dyspepsia. GET was 35.9 +/- 12.7 in the diabetics, significantly longer than normal (P < 0.0001). 24 diabetics (50%) had a prolonged GET (> or = 40 min) independent of type, duration and treatment of the diabetes, but more common if the blood sugar level was poorly controlled and there was late diabetic neuropathy. GET was also significantly prolonged in patients with functional dyspepsia (31.4 +/- 9.7 min; P < 0.055). There was a positive correlation with the clinical dismobility type of the dyspepsia. It is concluded from the findings that ultrasonographic measurement of GET successfully identifies noninvasively abnormal gastric motility in different types of disease.