Clinical Application of the Liquid Meal induced Satiety Test

Cho, Yu Kyung; Choi, Myung Gyu; Paik, Chang Nyol; Park, Jae Myung; Lee, In Seok; Kim, Sang Woo; Chung, In Sik

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The liquid meal loading test (satiety test) is known to be a simple, non-invasive test for evaluating gastric accommodation. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical utility of the satiety test in those healthy volunteers and patients who were expected to have impaired gastric accommodation.
METHODS
Twenty healthy volunteers (M:F=12:8, 25 years), 21 functional dyspepsia patients (M:F=10:11, 58 years) and 36 postgastrectomy patients (M:F=19:17, 56 years) underwent the satiety test. The subjects drank the liquid meal (1 Kcal/mL) as much as possible till they could not drink any more.
RESULTS
The maximum tolerated volume (MTV) of the healthy volunteers was higher than the MTV of the postgastrectomy patients (886.5+/-306.1 mL vs. 558.1+/-252.1 mL, respectively, p<0.01). The MTV of the dyspepsia group (681.4+/-391.2 mL) tended to be lower than that of the healthy volunteers (p=0.10). Forty five percent of the dyspeptic patients and 61% of the postgastrectomy patients had an abnormal MTV, which was defined as lower than the 10 percentile of the MTV in the healthy groups (540 ml). BMI had moderate correlation with the MTV (r2=0.35, p<0.01) The MTV of the males was larger than that of the females in all groups. Nausea was also the cause to stop ingestion of the meal in 25% of the healthy volunteers, whereas fullness was the exclusive cause in 90% of the dyspepsia group. Symptoms other than fullness caused to stoppage of ingestion in 60% of the postgastrectomy group.
CONCLUSIONS
The MTVs of the postgastrectomy patients and some of the patients with dyspepsia were lower than the MTVs of the healthy volunteers. The liquid loading test provides for quantitative measurement of postprandial symptoms. However, there are gender- and BMI-related differences for the MTV and postprandial symptoms. As symptoms other than fullness may determine the quantity of liquid ingestion, this suggests that a gastric sensorymotor function other than gastric accommodation may have an influence on MTV.