PhD defence Kim Wilhelmina Elisabeth Sweerts

Keywords: Gastroparesis, Gastrointestinal motility disorders

"Optimizing diagnostic strategies and therapeutic responses in gastrointestinal motility disorders"

This thesis focuses on gastrointestinal motility disorders, a heterogeneous group of conditions characterized by impaired movement of the gastrointestinal tract, leading to symptoms such as nausea, abdominal pain, constipation, and feeding intolerance. The research aimed to optimize both diagnostic strategies and therapeutic outcomes, with a particular focus on gastroparesis, a condition in which gastric emptying is delayed.

Current diagnostic procedures for gastrointestinal motility disorders are often invasive and burdensome for patients. Therefore, this thesis explored several non-invasive diagnostic approaches, including body surface gastric mapping and the analysis of volatile organic compounds in biological samples. These methods demonstrated promising potential as patient-friendly alternatives for identifying motility abnormalities.

In addition, factors influencing therapeutic response in gastroparesis were investigated. This thesis showed that placebo effects play a significant role in treatment outcomes, emphasizing the importance of incorporating adequate placebo-controlled designs in future studies to reliably evaluate therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, cellular abnormalities in the pyloric region of the stomach were identified, contributing to a better understanding of the underlying disease mechanisms and supporting the development of more targeted future therapies. Gastroparesis is a multifactorial condition and should therefore be treated by a multidisciplinary team.

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