Interdigestive antro-duodenal motor disorders in functional dyspepsia. Associated chronic gastritis correlates with a further motor impairment.

ABSTRACT

The interdigestive antro-duodenal motor activity was studied in 12 dyspeptic patients without gastritis (group A), 12 dyspeptic patients with chronic superficial antral gastritis (group B) and 8 healthy controls (group C) by manometric recording of phases of the interdigestive motility cycle (IDMC) prolonged over 240 minutes. A significantly lower incidence of migrating motor complexes (MMCs) starting from the antrum was observed in dyspeptic patients with gastritis vs dyspeptic patients without gastritis (p = 0.02) and in these latter vs controls (p < 0.01). Likewise, the overall number of MMCs was smaller in patients with gastritis vs controls (p = 0.02). Symptomatic evaluation was performed in the two groups of dyspeptic patients, without detecting any differences in frequency and severity of individual and overall complaints. Our results confirm the role of interdigestive antral motor abnormalities in the genesis of dyspeptic syndrome and suggest that the presence of associated chronic superficial gastritis may correlate with a further motor impairment.