Abnormality of Sensory Thresholds and Gastric Liquid Emptying in Patients with Functional Dyspepsia

Objective To study the relationship between gastric sensory thresholds and gastric liquid emptying in patients with functional dyspepsia(FD).Methods Gastric sensory thresholds(perception,discomfort and pain thresholds) were applied by barostat in 30 FD patients and 15 healthy controls.Gastric liquid emptying was measured by ultrasonography.Results The perception,discomfort and pain thresholds in FD patients were clearly lower than those in healthy controls(perception: 4.9±1.3 mmHg vs.7.6±1.4mmHg,P0.05;discomfort:7.6±1.3 mmHg vs.10.8±1.6 mmHg,P0.01 and pain: 9.7±1.4 mmHg vs.13.7±1.5 mmHg,P0.05,respectively) The average time of 50% gastric liquid emptying was longer than that in healthy controls(31.1±8.9 min vs.23.7±4.6 min,P0.01).40%(12/30) FD patients had gastric perception and discomfort hypersensitivity.46.7%(14/30) FD patients had gastric pain hypersensitivity.The relevance analysis of gastric sensory thresholds and the average time of 50% gastric liquid emptying showed that the lower gastric sensory thresholds,the longer the delay of gastric liquid emptying(r_1=-0.368,P0.05;r_2=-0.446,P0.05 and r_3=-0.559,P0.05,respectively).Conclusions The patients with FD have not only gastric hypersensitivity,but also delayed of gastric liquid emptying,which is related to gastric sensory thresholds.