Gastric emptying and myoelectrical activity testing in children with esophageal atresia: A pilot study

Carlijn Mussies; Gilles Duvoisin; Angela Le; Selin Birro; Sarah Hulbert; Taher Omari; Marc A Benninga; Michiel P van Wijk; Usha Krishnan

doi:10.1002/jpr3.12021

Gastric emptying and myoelectrical activity testing in children with esophageal atresia: A pilot study

JPGN Rep. 2023 Dec 20;5(1):10-16. doi: 10.1002/jpr3.12021. eCollection 2024 Feb.

Authors

Carlijn Mussies¹, Gilles Duvoisin^{2

3}, Angela Le⁴, Selin Birro⁴, Sarah Hulbert², Taher Omari⁵, Marc A Benninga¹, Michiel P van Wijk⁶, Usha Krishnan^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Emma Children's Hospital, Amsterdam UMC University of Amsterdam Amsterdam the Netherlands.
² Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology Sydney Children's Hospital Sydney New South Wales Australia.
³ Department of Paediatrics Lausanne University Hospital Lausanne Switzerland.
⁴ School of Women's and Children's Health University of New South Wales Sydney New South Wales Australia.
⁵ School of Medicine Flinders University Adelaide South Australia Australia.
⁶ Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Emma Children's Hospital, Amsterdam UMC Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam the Netherlands.

Abstract

Objectives: Abnormalities of gastric function in children with esophageal atresia (EA) could potentially contribute to gastrointestinal symptoms and reduced quality of life (QOL). Therefore, we aimed to determine the feasibility and clinical usefulness of gastric function testing in children with EA.

Methods: The validated PedsQL Gastrointestinal Symptoms Questionnaire (PedsQL-GI) was completed to assess gastrointestinal symptoms and symptom-related QOL. Gastric emptying and gastric myoelectrical activity were studied using ¹³C-gastric emptying octanoic acid breath test (¹³C-GEBT) and surface electrogastrography (EGG). Correlations between ¹³C-GEBT and EGG parameters and PedsQL-GI scores were investigated.

Results: Fifteen patients (four males) were included (median age: 6 [3.0-8.5] years). Mean PedsQL-GI scores as reported by the children were comparable to the healthy population. However, parents reported a diminished QOL. Gastric function tests (gastric emptying and/or surface EGG) showed abnormalities in 12 patients (80%). Patients with abnormal slow waves showed abnormal gastric emptying coefficient more often. There was no significant association between ¹³C-GEBT nor EGG results and PedsQL-GI scores.

Conclusions: ¹³C-GEBT and EGG can be used to evaluate gastric function in patients with EA. Abnormal gastric function tests were present in 80% of our cohort. However, abnormal gastric function did not significantly correlate with reported gastrointestinal symptom-related QOL.

Keywords: esophageal atresia; gastric function; octanoic gastric emptying breath test; quality of life; surface electrogastrography.

© 2023 The Authors. JPGN Reports published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.