Gallbladder emptying and gastrointestinal cyclic motor activity in humans.
The purpose of the present work was to answer two questions: does the human gallbladder empty in the fasting state, and, if so, is the emptying related to a specific phase of the activity in the gastrointestinal tract? The material consisted of nine healthy volunteers and the motility recordings were done with a perfused low-compliance system. Gallbladder emptying was recorded by the use of scintigraphy with 99mTc-HIDA. Eleven activity fronts were observed, and seven periods of gallbladder emptying were recorded. Reduction in counts over the gallbladder ranged from 8% to 32%. All emptyings took place in connection with phase-II activity in the intestine. Three were in close proximity to the following phase-III activity, and the other four occurred early in a phase II. Four activity fronts were not accompanied by output of bile.


CONCLUSIONS
bile output from the gallbladder occurs in fasting humans, and gallbladder emptying takes place in connection with phase-II activity in the intestine but not always in close connection with the following phase-III activity.
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005704:Gallbladder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D005746:Gastric Emptying; D005769:Gastrointestinal Motility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging