A recent post (Is A Gastric Emptying Study Helpful in Children?) reviewed data in children indicating that gastric emptying study (GES) results did not correlate with symptom severity in children with functional dyspepsia (FD) symptoms.

Now a 12-year study in adults (n=944) (PJ Pasricha et al. Gastroenterol 2021; 160; 2006-2017. Full text: Functional Dyspepsia and Gastroparesis in Tertiary Care are Interchangeable Syndromes With Common Clinical and Pathologic Features) shows that FD is similar to gastroparesis in terms of clinical and pathological features and that diagnosis of these disorders were NOT fixed. Many patients with FD developed criteria of gastroparesis and many with gastroparesis were later reclassified as FD after followup GES.

Key findings:

• At 48-weeks, 42% of patients with an initial diagnosis of gastroparesis were reclassified as FD based on gastric-emptying results at this time point; conversely, 37% of patients with FD were reclassified as having gastroparesis
• In a subset of patients, full-thickness biopsies of the stomach showed loss of interstitial cells of Cajal and CD206⁺ macrophages in both groups compared with obese controls.
• The 48-week clinical outcomes were similar. Symptom severity remained “on average unchanged despite the change in gastric-emptying status”

My take (borrowed from authors): This study shows that “patients initially classified as one or the other are not distinguishable by clinical features or by follow-up assessment of gastric emptying…both disorders are unified by characteristic pathologic features, best summarized as a macrophage-driven “cajalopathy” of the stomach.”

While the authors state that a GES lacks reliability, the associated editorial argues that a GES may still be useful (J Tan et al. pg 1931. Full text: Gastroparesis: A Dead-end Street After All?) As individuals with delayed GE “fail to benefiit” from neuromodulators, a GES may influence treatment. However, they note that ACG guidelines indicate that a GES is not needed and all patients with dyspepsia symptoms can be treated in a “uniform sequence of proton pump inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants and prokinetics as third-line therapy.”

Related blog posts:

• Provacative Study: Pyloric Botox for Feeding Difficulties Baseline gastric emptying results did not predict IPBI response
• Is a Gastric Emptying Study Helpful in Children?
• Trying to Understand Gastroparesis
• Gastric Electrical Stimulation For Refractory Vomiting, IBD Resources & MMWR COVID-19 Report | gutsandgrowth
• What to do with delayed gastric emptying/gastroparesis

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