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Gender-related differences in gastric emptying rate of solid meals

  • Motility, Nerve-Gut Interactions, Hormones, And Receptors
  • Published:
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Abstract

Controversy exists about the occurrence of a gender-related difference in gastric emptying in humans. In this paper, a strictly standardized scintigraphic method, in which pancakes were labeled with technetium-99m-macroaggregated albumin, was used to follow gastric emptying in 16 male and 14 female healthy young subjects. The resulting mean gastric emptying curves described biphasic patterns. There was a similar lag period (30.6±4.2 vs 33.6±3.8 min; means±SEM) but a faster linear gastric emptying rate (32.9±1.4 vs 22.0±1.3%/hr), a shorter half-emptying time (111.2±8.6 vs 158.2±6.4 min) and lower residual radioactivity after 2 hr (43.0±3.5 vs 62.8±1.7%) in the male subgroup as compared with the female subgroup. The differences were highly statistically significant. As a result, separate reference values are recommended for young male and fertile female subjects.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. From the Heart & Lung Institution, Department of Clinical Physiology, Östra Hospital, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

    Gert Hermansson MD & Ramon Sivertsson PhD

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  1. Gert Hermansson MD
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  2. Ramon Sivertsson PhD
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Hermansson, G., Sivertsson, R. Gender-related differences in gastric emptying rate of solid meals. Digest Dis Sci 41, 1994–1998 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02093602

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02093602

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