Duodenal ulcer disease,gastroduodenal motor function and reflux esophagitis – a cross‐sectional survey in a subset of Taiwanese patients

Background To investigate the association between the gastric emptying rate and the presence of erosive esophagitis in duodenal ulcer (DU) patients among a population with high prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection. Methods Cross‐sectional survey was performed in a cohort of 60 male patients with either active or healed DU, with or without the presence of erosive esophagitis. Clinical and social‐demographic data, blood level of fasting gastrin, pepsinogen I & I/II ratio, and scintigraphic measurement of half emptying time (t_1/2) of the solid phase gastric emptying were evaluated. Key Results Patients with active DU and erosive esophagitis tended to have higher plasma level of fasting gastrin than those without erosive esophagitis (75.11 ± 13.74 vs 45.81 ± 5.06 pg mL^?1, P = 0.059). In the absence of H. pylori infection, patients with healed DU and erosive esophagitis had a trend to have longer half‐emptying time (t_1/2: 96.5 ± 6.4 vs 69.1 ± 11.3 min, P = 0.0572) than those without erosive esophagitis, and statistically significant longer after excluding those diagnosed with hiatal hernia (t_1/2: 100.8 ± 7.9 min vs 69.1 ± 11.3 min, P < 0.05) from the former group. Among the healed DU patients, those with negative H. pylori infection, hiatal hernia and overweight (body mass index ≥24) had significantly increased risk of severe esophagitis. Conclusions & Inferences Presence of erosive esophagitis in a subset of Taiwanese patients with healed DU and negative H. pylori status was associated with slower solid phase gastric emptying.