Epidemiology of gastroparesis

Gastroparesis, whether idiopathic or related to an underlying disease, is thought to be common but data on the actual community prevalence of the disorder are scanty. Hospital admission data, which, of course are highly selective, suggest that gastroparesis imposes a significant burden on health care systems and is a cause of significant morbidity for the affected individual. One of the major barriers to the generation of accurate epidemiological data is the very definition of gastroparesis - its symptoms are non-specific and the most widely available objective test to document gastric emptying delay involves radiation exposure. The availability of non-invasive and non-radiation emitting alternatives should open the way to providing accurate epidemiological data on this challenging condition and, thereby, close an enormous gap in our understanding.