Can my doctor say I have gastroparesis based on the fact that I had a full belly of food when he did my EGD?

The time it takes your stomach to empty depends on what you have been eating. As a general rule, half of the stomach contents should empty in about an hour to an hour and a half. Meals with a lot of fat content stay in your stomach longer.

In any case, 16 hours is too long to have a full stomach.

With the endoscope, you doctor could also see whether or not your stomach was moving properly. A normal stomach has muscular wave motions approximately every 15 seconds.

So the answer is yes, you doctor can diagnose gastroparesis based on a full stomach 16 hours after eating. Almost all the alternative diagnoses that would cause failure of your stomach to empty would also cause vomiting.

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