Abnormalities in the digestive process have been observed frequently in chronic alcoholic patients and in non-alcoholic individuals after acute ingestion of alcohol. It is believed that ingestion of alcohol contributes to the formation of inflammatory lesions of the gastric mucosa, but the connection between alcohol ingestion and motor disturbances is more controversial. There is data to suggest that gastric smooth muscle contractility is affected by alcohol. It has not been shown, however, how the electrical/mechanical activity of gastric muscle ex vivo relates to gastric emptying in vivo. This project will investigate the effect of acute and chronic alcohol ingestion on gastric motor function, using a physiologic, noninvasive quantitative imaging technique. Dogs will be used as the model of alcoholism, so that diet and drugs can be carefully controlled to eliminate effects on gastric motility due to causes other than alcohol. Each dog will act as its own control, by being studied in a healthy, alcohol-free state prior to being studied with acute or chronic alcohol ingesting. Various functions of the stomach will be studied. The processing function (or grinding of food particles down to a size which can be emptied) and the rate of emptying will be studied by continuously following the gastric emptying of a radiolabeled solid meal using a gamma camera. The barrier function (in which the pylorus acts as a barrier to reflux of intestinal contents into the stomach) will be studied by quantification of the amount of bile refluxing into the stomach, using a radiolabeled marker for bile in a dual isotope imaging technique. The data for each of the above processes will be compared for 1) chronic alcoholics with and without alcohol ingestion; 2) nonalcoholics with and without alcohol ingestion. These results should provide a clear understanding of the disturbances in gastric function which contribute to the pathophysiological consequences of alcoholism.
| Knight, L C; Maurer, A H; Wikander, R et al. (1992) Effect of ethyl alcohol on motor function in canine stomach. Am J Physiol 262:G223-30 |
