Antiinflammatory drugs and gastric emptying. A comparison between acetylsalicylic acid and carprofen.

Continuing their studies of gastric emptying modifications induced by nonsteroid anti-inflammatory drugs, the authors investigated the effects of 6-chloro-a-methylcarbazole-2-acetic acid (carprofen, Imadyl) versus those of acteylsalicylic acid (ASA) in an open crossover study of 10 healthy volunteers with normal gastric motility. The subjects received a standard meal labeled with 99Tc DTPA and were monitored for gastric emptying over time by scintiscanning with a gamma ray camera wired to a computer. Each subject was examined in basal conditions and after dosing with carprofen and ASA in random sequence with a 10-day washout period between tests. With the ASA treatment, all subjects showed considerable prolongation of gastric transit compared to pretreatment values, both in terms of first discharge of labeled bolus into the duodenum and of percent gastric radioactivity dissipated at 20 min. With carprofen, both parameters were influenced in the same direction to a significantly lower degree, to the point where the difference from pretreatment values was statistically improbable.