Assessment of Gastric Emptying by Radionuclide Scintigraphy in Patients with type I Diabetes

Abstract

The present work was designed to study gastric motility in type I diabetic patients and to assess the relation between scintigraphic findings of gastric emptying and age, sex, duration of diabetes, glycemic control, gastrointestinal symptoms and diabetic complications among such patients.

The work included 31 patients with type I diabetes, 15 of them were complicated by autonomic neuropathy and 10 healthy individuals as a control group.

All groups were subjected to detailed history taking, assessment of GIT symptoms, symptoms of peripheral and autonomic neuropathy, measurement of mean random blood glucose (mean RBG), mean glycosylated hemoglobin (mean HbA 1 c) and quantitative determination of microalbuminuria. The presence of autonomic neuropathy was determined by 2 cardiovascular reflexes. Gastric scintigraphy was done using Sophy Camera DSX rectangular.

Results revealed delayed gastric emptying of semisolid meal in 12 (38.70%) of all studied diabetic patients.