Evaluation of gastric emptying in familial and sporadic Parkinson disease.

OBJECTIVE

To assess for the presence of gastric dysmotility in familial and sporadic Parkinson disease (PD).

METHODS

10 subjects with familial Parkinson disease (fPD), 35 subjects with sporadic Parkinson disease (sPD), and 15 controls, all from academic tertiary care movement disorders centers, were studied. fPD was defined as the presence of at least 2 affected individuals within 2-3 consecutive generations in a family. Molecular genetic analysis has not revealed, thus far, any known genomic abnormality in these families. Gastric emptying was assessed by dynamic abdominal scintigraphy over 92 min following ingestion of a solid meal containing 99mTc-labeled colloid of 40 MBq activity. The main outcome measures were gastric emptying half-time and radiotracer activity over the gastric area at 46 and at 92 min.

RESULTS

Gastric emptying time was delayed in 60% of subjects with PD. In comparison to mean t(1/2) of 38 +/- 7 min in controls, mean t(1/2) was 58 +/- 25 min in fPD (p = 0.02) and 46 +/- 25 min in sPD (p = 0.10). Both fPD and sPD groups included subjects with delayed gastric emptying at an early stage of disease.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with fPD showed significantly delayed gastric emptying in comparison to normal age-matched individuals. Further studies of gastrointestinal dysfunction in PD, particularly fPD, are warranted.