Gastric emptying in children. IV. Studies on kwashiorkor and on marasmic kwashiorkor.

Gastric emptying of 20 ml/kg body weight of 5% glucose was assessed by the double-sample test meal in 22 malnourished hospitalized children divided into two groups according to the form of malnutrition presented: kwashiorkor (n = 11) or marasmic kwashiorkor (n = 11). Gastric emptying tests were carried out within 72 hours of admission and 30 days later when nutritional status was in net recovery. The control group consisted of seven healthy children who were submitted to a single test. The volumes remaining in the stomach of the children in the kwashiorkor group after the initial test did not differ significantly from those obtained after the second test, when recovery of nutritional status had started. In marasmic kwashiorkor children, intragastric liquid volumes 30 minutes after the test meal were significantly higher in newly-admitted children than in controls, but the differences disappeared after recovery had started. We conclude that kwashiorkor children have no detectable abnormalities of the gastric emptying of a liquid meal, whereas marasmic kwashiorkor malnourished children have delayed gastric emptying but the abnormality is reversible after recovery of nutritional status.