Gastrointestinal Disorders in Diabetes

Review
In: Endotext [Internet]. South Dartmouth (MA): MDText.com, Inc.; 2000.
.

Excerpt

Gastrointestinal manifestations of type 1 and 2 diabetes are common and represent a substantial cause of morbidity and health care costs, as well as a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Predominant among them, and most extensively studied, is abnormally delayed gastric emptying or diabetic gastroparesis. Abnormally increased retention of gastric contents may be associated with symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, postprandial fullness, bloating, and early satiety, which may be debilitating. However, the relationship of upper gastrointestinal symptoms with the rate of gastric emptying is relatively weak. Moreover, gastrointestinal symptoms also occur frequently in people without diabetes, which may compromise the capacity to discriminate gastrointestinal dysfunction resulting from diabetes from common gastrointestinal disorders such as functional dyspepsia. A definitive diagnosis of gastroparesis thus necessitates measurement of gastric emptying by a sensitive technique, such as scintigraphy or a stable-isotope breath test. There is an inter-dependent relationship of gastric emptying with postprandial glycemia. Elevated blood glucose (hyperglycemia) slows gastric emptying while, conversely, the rate of emptying is a major determinant of the glycemic response to a meal. The latter recognition has stimulated the development of dietary and pharmacological (e.g. short-acting GLP-1 receptor agonists) approaches to improve postprandial glycemic control in type 2 diabetes by slowing gastric emptying. The outcome of current management of symptomatic diabetic gastroparesis is often sub-optimal - optimizing glycemic control, the correction of nutritional deficiencies, and use of pharmacotherapy, are important. A number of promising and novel pharmacotherapeutic agents are in development. This chapter focusses on gastric motor function, but also provides an overview of the manifestations of esophageal, gall bladder, small and large intestinal function, in diabetes. For complete coverage of all related areas of Endocrinology, please visit our on-line FREE web-text, WWW.ENDOTEXT.ORG.

Publication types

  • Review