We have examined the effect of alcohol on the gastric emptying rate of
a liquid meal in 10 volunteers. Each volunteer was allocated randomly
to receive, on three occasions, no alcohol 3 units or 6 units of alco
hol. Gastric emptying was measured using applied potential tomography.
The rate of gastric emptying as measured by the time to 50% emptying
(T50) was delayed significantly (P < 0.01) after alcohol 6 units (medi
an 45.0 min (range 19-90 min)) compared with control (23.0 min (13-36
min)) and there was little change after alcohol 3 units (25.5 min (10-
41 min)).