Case 2 Flashcards
(225 cards)
physiologically, what is the stomach divided into?
two parts:
- Orad portion – this is the first 2/3 of the ‘body’ of the stomach.
- Caudad portion – this is the last 1/3 of the ‘body’ of the stomach + antrum.
what are the three motor functions of the stomach?
- Storage of large quantities of food until the food can be processed in the stomach, duodenum, and lower intestinal tract.
- Mixing of this food with gastric secretions until it forms a semifluid mixture called chyme.
- Slow emptying of the chyme from the stomach into the small intestine at a rate suitable for proper digestion and absorption by the small intestine.
storage function of the stomach
- how does food sit in stomach
- what does distention cause
- maximal capacity
• Food entering forms concentric circles of food in the orad portion of the stomach.
• The newest food is closest to the oesophageal opening, whilst the old food lies nearest to the outer wall of the stomach.
• When this food stretches the stomach wall, a ‘vagovagal reflex’ occurs.
• Signals are sent from the stomach to the brainstem and back, thus reducing the muscle tone of the muscular wall of the body of the stomach so that the wall can expand outwards progressively.
• This accommodates for greater quantities of food entering the stomach.
The maximal stomach volume/ capacity is between 0.8-1.5 litres.
what are digestive juices of the stomach secreted by and where are they found?
- The digestive juices of the stomach are secreted by the gastric glands, which are present in almost the entire wall of the body of the stomach except along the lesser curvature of the stomach.
- These come into direct contact with the food lying against the mucosal surface of the stomach.
as long as food is in the stomach, what happens?
- The digestive juices of the stomach are secreted by the gastric glands, which are present in almost the entire wall of the body of the stomach except along the lesser curvature of the stomach.
- These come into direct contact with the food lying against the mucosal surface of the stomach.
what are these mixing waves initiated by?
the gut wall basic electrical rhythm, consisting of electrical “slow waves” that occur spontaneously in the stomach wall.
what happens as these constrictor waves progress from the body of the stomach into the antrum?
- As the constrictor waves progress from the body of the stomach into the antrum, they become more intense.
- Some of these waves become extremely intense, providing powerful peristaltic action potential–driven constrictor rings that force the antral contents under higher and higher pressure toward the pylorus.
how do these constrictor rings also play an important role in mixing the stomach contents?
Each time a peristaltic wave passes down the antral wall toward the pylorus, it digs deeply into the food contents in the antrum.
The opening of the pylorus is small - only a few millilitres or less of antral contents are expelled into the duodenum with each peristaltic wave.
Also, as each peristaltic wave approaches the pylorus, the pyloric muscle itself often contracts, which further impedes emptying through the pylorus.
Therefore, most of the antral contents are squeezed upstream through the peristaltic ring toward the body of the stomach, not through the pylorus.
Thus, the moving peristaltic constrictive ring, combined with this upstream squeezing action, called “retropulsion,” is an exceedingly important mixing mechanism in the stomach.
what does the degree of fluidity of chyme leaving the stomach depend on?
on the relative amounts of food, water, and stomach secretions and on the degree of digestion that has occurred.
• Chyme appears like a murky semifluid or paste.
hunger contractions
- when do they occur
- what are they
- who most intense in
- what also triggered by
- what also experienced with this
- Hunger contractions occur in the stomach when it is has been empty for several hours or more.
- They are rhythmical peristaltic contractions in the body of the stomach.
- Hunger contractions are most intense in young, healthy people who have high degrees of GI tonus (i.e. a constant low-level activity of a body tissue, especially muscle tone).
- They are also triggered by a hypoglycaemic state.
- When hunger contractions occur in the stomach, the person sometimes experiences mild pain in the pit of the stomach, called hunger pangs.
what is stomach emptying brought about by?
strong peristaltic contractions in the stomach antrum.
what are stomach contractions mainly involved in? how do they change and what do they become involved in? what happens as the stomach becomes more empty?
- The stomach contractions are mainly involved in mixing the food as they are weak with regards to causing emptying of the stomach.
- However, for about 20%of the time while food is in the stomach, the contractions become intense, beginning in mid-stomach and spreading through the caudad stomach no longer as weak mixing contractions but as strong peristaltic, very tight ring-like constrictions that can cause stomach emptying.
- As the stomach becomes progressively more and more empty, these constrictions begin farther and farther up the body of the stomach, gradually pinching off the food in the body of the stomach and adding this food to the chyme in the antrum.
when pyloric tone is normal, how much can each strong peristaltic wave force into the duodenum?
up to several milliliters of chyme
thus, what do the peristaltic waves do?
- Cause mixing in the stomach.
2. Provide a pumping action called the “pyloric pump.”
what is the thickness of the circular wall muscle of the pylorus like compared to earlier portions of the stomach antrum? what state is it normally in? what is the pyloric circular muscle called? what does this allow and not allow through?
- Here the thickness of the circular wall muscle becomes 50 -100% greater than in the earlier portions of the stomach antrum, and it remains slightly tonically contracted.
- Therefore, the pyloric circular muscle is called the pyloric sphincter.
- Despite normal tonic contraction of the pyloric sphincter, the pylorus usually is open enough for water and other fluids to empty from the stomach into the duodenum with ease.
- Conversely, the constriction usually prevents passage of food particles until they have become mixed in the chyme to almost fluid consistency.
what is the degree of constriction of the pylorus affected by?
• The degree of constriction of the pylorus is increased or decreased under the influence of nervous and humoral reflex signals from both the stomach and the duodenum.
what is regulation of stomach emptying controlled by?
- The rate at which the stomach empties is regulated by signals from both the stomach and the duodenum.
- However, the duodenum provides by far the more potent of the signals, controlling the emptying of chyme into the duodenum at a rate no greater than the rate at which the chyme can be digested and absorbed in the small intestine.
describe and explain the effect of gastric food volume on rate of emptying
- Increased food volume in the stomach promotes increased emptying from the stomach.
- This increased emptying is not due to increased storage pressure of the food in the stomach, because in the usual normal range of volume, the increase in volume does not increase the pressure much.
- However, stretching of the stomach wall elicits local myenteric reflexes in the wall that greatly accentuate activity of the pyloric pump and at the same time inhibit the pylorus.
what is gastrin released by?
G cells of the antral mucosa
what is gastrin released as a result of?
Stretching of the stomach wall.
Presence of protein food contents in the stomach.
what are the functions of gastrin?
- It has potent effects to cause secretion highly acidic gastric juice by stomach glands:
Gastrin activates ECL (enterochromaffin-like) cells, which release histamine, which is the primary initiator for parietal cell acid production. - It has some effects on the motor function of the stomach:
It enhances the activity of the pyloric pump, thus promoting stomach emptying.
what effect does the duodenum have on stomach emptying?
• Upon food entering the duodenum, multiple nervous reflexes are initiated from the duodenal wall that pass back to the stomach to slow or even stop stomach emptying if the volume of chyme in the duodenum becomes too much.
what are the three routes that these reflexes from the duodenum are mediated through?
- Directly from the duodenum to the stomach through the enteric nervous system in the gut wall.
- Through extrinsic nerves that go to the prevertebral sympathetic ganglia and then back through inhibitory sympathetic nerve fibres to the stomach.
- Through the vagus nerves to the brainstem, where they inhibit the normal excitatory signals transmitted to the stomach through the vagi. (this pathway only plays a minor role)
what effects do these enterogastric inhibitory reflexes have?
• These parallel pathways have two effects on the emptying of the stomach:
- Strongly inhibit the pyloric pump propulsive contractions.
- Increase the tone of the pyloric sphincter.