Methods for the Assessment of Small-Bowel and Colonic Transit
Section snippets
Barium Contrast Studies
The earliest and most readily available method for assessing gastrointestinal transit is contrast radiography. Barium is an imperfect substitute for intestinal chyme because it is inert and, therefore, it does not initiate events induced by the biochemical components of food. Barium also has a greater density than water, and it is hypoosmolar compared with food. Nevertheless, barium contrast studies are immensely helpful in patients with suspected motility disorders to rule out mechanical
Radiopaque Marker
Colonic transit studies are used to evaluate total and segmental colonic transit times. Radiopaque markers can be obtained commercially.
Several different methods to measure colonic transit with radiopaque markers have been described.80, 81, 82 The method that is perhaps the simplest and involves the least amount of radiation exposure is the method reported by Hinton et al.80 This involves the ingestion of a gelatin capsule containing 24 radiopaque 4.5-mm rings and performing a single plain
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Mrs Cindy Stanislav for excellent secretarial support. M.C. is supported in part by grants RO1-DK-1RC1-DK086182, R01-DK-079866, and RO1-DK-67071 from National Institutes of Health.
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