Electrogastrography Before and After a High-Caloric,Liquid Test Meal in Healthy Volunteers and Patients with Severe Functional Dyspepsia

Background: The cutaneous recording of gastric electric rhythm, so-called electrogastrography (EGG), has been purported as a non-invasive method for studying patients with functional dyspepsia and unexplained nausea and vomiting. The aims of this study were to determine normal values for EGG characteristics before and after a liquid, high-caloric test meal and to investigate whether EGG could discriminate between patients with functional dyspepsia and normal controls. Methods: In studying 20 healthy volunteers and 10 patients with functional dyspepsia, we recorded gastric electrical activity during the 30 min before and after a liquid 1.0-1.5 kcal/ml test meal. Satiety before and after the meal was estimated on a 10-point scale. EGG was analysed regarding dominant frequency, instability of the dominant frequency, power ratio and percentage activity in the normal frequency range. Results: The mean ( ± s ) caloric intake in patients with functional dyspepsia (286 ± 160 kcal) was significantly lower ( P < 0.001) than in healthy volunteers (610 ± 211 kcal). The patients reported a more pronounced feeling of satiety before the test meal (5.6 ± 3.2) compared to healthy volunteers (3.6 ± 1.2, P < 0.05), but at the end of the test meal there was no difference in satiety (7.9 ± 2.5 versus 7.7 ± 1.0). However, none of the EGG parameters showed any difference between patients and healthy volunteers. Conclusions: EGG before and after a high-caloric test meal showed large variation in healthy subjects and seemed to be of little value for differentiating between healthy individuals and patients with functional dyspepsia.