Relationship between gastric emptying and clinical and biochemical factors in chronic haemodialysis patients.

Background: Gastroparesis is an important side-effect of end-stage renal disease because of its influence on nutritional status.

Methods: In this study, 56 equilibrated haemodialysis patients were evaluated by radioisotopic examination for gastric emptying time. These data were correlated to anthropometrical as well as biochemical parameters.

Results: The half-life time for gastric emptying was 83+/-34 min in the overall population, compared to 50+/-15 min in a normal reference population. Prealbumin, mean fibular nerve-conduction velocity and intra- as well as extracorpuscular folic acid were significantly different between patients with the lowest and highest gastric emptying times. Linear correlation analysis between the half-life for residual radioactivity and the remaining parameters yielded a significant correlation for blood urea nitrogen, serum folic acid, intracorpuscular folic acid, serum vitamin B(12), serum C-reactive protein, serum prealbumin and mean fibular nerve-conduction velocity.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that gastric emptying is significantly delayed in end-stage renal disease patients. The delay is associated with changes in biochemical indicators of nutritional status such as serum albumin and prealbumin.