Gastric emptying and intragastric distribution of lipids in man

Abstract

We measured gastric emptying of fat and water from a solid-liquid meal in healthy volunteers using a tubeless scintigraphic method. Selenium-75 glycerol triether, incorporated in butter, was the lipid-phase marker, and technetium-99m, ingested with 250 ml water, the non-lipid phase marker. In seven of these subjects we also measured the gastric emptying of solids and liquids with technetium-99m bound to cooked egg whites as the solid-phase marker and indium-111 ingested with 250 ml water as the marker of the solid and aqueous phases. Emptying and intragastric repartition of each marker were measured by detection of radioactivity changes over the abdominal area using a gamma-camera. The stability and the specificity of the labeling was checked for each marker. Mean gastric emptying rate (expressed as percentage ingested marker emptied per hr) of lipids (17.4 +/- 2.4) was much lower than that of the rest of the meal (34.2 +/- 1.8) and slightly, but significantly, lower than that of solids (22.8 +/- 1.8). An intragastric layering of fat above nonlipids was observed only after the first postprandial hour and remained moderate. Thus, lipids are emptied more slowly than any other component of an ordinary meal, and this is not due only to layering of fat above water.

Scintigraphic quantitation of gastrointestinal motor activity and transport: oesophagus and stomach

“…To obtain information on the emptying characteristics of liquid and solid meal components in conjunction, these components are labelled with radionuclides of different energies. As a fat marker, selenium-75 glycerol triether butter has been described (Jian et al 1982).…”

Enhancement of intragastric acid stability of a fat emulsion meal delays gastric emptying and increases cholecystokinin release and gallbladder contraction

“…Early gamma scintigraphy studies using labeled, lipid-phase markers (14,26,28) showed that where fat is an integral part of the food, the fat component of the meal is emptied with the solid phase of the meal (16). However, if the fat component is free and liquid at body temperature it can separate from the solid food component and may empty much more slowly than the aqueous phase of the meal (14,28). Recently several groups have begun to exploit the developments in MRI to describe this process in more detail and have shown that the oil phase floats above the aqueous phase in the gastric fundus and hence empties last (6).…”

Effects of butter and soybean oils on solid-phase gastric emptying in patients with functional dyspepsia

“…Cortot et al also found that butter left the stomach more slowly than the aqueous portion of the meal [10]. With external scintigraphy, Jian et al confirmed the delayed emptying of fat versus water and also found that the fat emptied as fast as the solid food that was tracked in the same subjects on a different day [11]. Lawaetz et al demonstrated that soybean oil reduces GE of the meal and relieves the symptoms of the dumping syndrome in postvagotomy patients [12].…”