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.