BACKGROUND Non-ulcer dyspepsia (NUD) is a poorly understood syndrome often found with endoscopic evidence of gastritis; Helicobacter pylori (Hp) is a common and important cause of gastritis. In the recent literature, gastric hypomotility is thought to be a cause of NUD. Thus, this investigation studied the relationship between Hp and delayed gastric emptying in NUD patients. METHODS Using a radionuclide-labelled solid meal to calculate gastric emptying time (GET) of 78 NUD patients. The carbon-14 urea breath test (C14 UBT) was used to quantitate Hp infection. RESULTS The prevalence of Hp infection in patients with NUD reached 59%. There was a strong association of Hp infection with advanced age (p = 0.0091). There was no significant difference between solid-phase GET and C14 UBT values among three different age groups (young, middle, old) of NUD patients. There was no difference among sex, age, body weight and solid-phase GET between Hp-positive and Hp-negative NUD patients. However the solid-phase GET was significantly prolonged in patients with NUD, compared with the controls. CONCLUSIONS Solid-phase GET is not correlated with the C14 UBT values, and Hp gastric colonization does not account for dyspeptic syndrome in NUD patients.