Gastric emptying in infants with congenital heart disease.

Gastric emptying of infant formula using a marker dilution technique was studied in 8 infants with congenital heart disease aged 1 week to 5 months. Six infants were in heart failure and 4 failed to grow. Gastric emptying followed a linear pattern in 5 and a biphasic pattern with an initial slow phase in 2 infants. The amounts of meal emptied after 1 and 2 hours, 14.7 and 31.0 ml per 0.1 m2 of body surface area, respectively, were significantly smaller than the corresponding amounts found in a group of healthy infants.