Gastroduodenal motility

Several major themes emerged over the past year in the area of gastroduoden al motility. Mostly, these themes represented extensions of research areas discussed in prior reviews in this series rather than the emergence of comp letely new concepts. Thus, for example, considerable emphasis has again bee n placed on regional gastric motor function in dyspepsia and on the role of fundic relaxation and accommodation, in particular. Not surprisingly, basi c physiologic research has also shown a keen interest in the regulation of fundic relaxation. One new and exciting development is the recognition of t he stomach's role in satiety. The spectrum of gastric motor dysfunction in diabetes mellitus continues to be explored, and the important role of hyper glycemia in regulating gastric function has been further emphasized. More d ata have been provided on noninvasive alternatives to gastric motor functio n testing, and several studies have looked at factors that may influence va riability in these various tests. There have been few innovations over the past year in the therapeutic arena; rather, the indications and limitations of current therapies have been further developed. (C) 1999 Lippincott Will iams & Wilkins, Inc.