Methods
A systematic search for relevant original publications was conducted on MEDLINE from 1990 to 2008 using the following search keys: functional tests, gastric physiology, gastric emptying, gastric motility and MRI. The articles were primarily selected on the basis of the title and the abstract; no specific exclusion criteria were used. Additional references were obtained from the bibliographies of the original articles. The full text of 15 relevant articles was retrieved. A summary of the studies mentioned in the article are listed in Table 1.
Table 1 Summary of all studies mentioned in the article
Modality Gastric volume (ml)
Basal After glucagon After erythromycin
Barostat 225 ± 52 561 ± 58* 149 ± 61
MR imaging 331 ± 56 720 ± 65* 206 ± 66†