Gastric emptying of three different size of indigestible radiopaque markers in healthy subjects.
The gastric emptying of indigestible solids is affected by the size, specific gravity, shape, consistency and the compressibility of the indigestible solids and depends largely on the composition of the meal. The threshold size is about 3.0 mm in canine. But it is reported that the estimates made for dogs may not apply to humans. I evaluated whether the size of indigestible solids affects gastric emptying in healthy subjects with food which had the same specific gravity as the indigestible solids. We used three sets of 20 ring shaped radiopaque markers, which had the same specific gravity (1.2), shape, consistency, and compressibility, but different diameters (2.0 mm, 4.5 mm and 7.0 mm). After the subjects ingested the three sets of 20 markers with food, the number of markers evacuated from the stomach was counted every 15 min until all the markers were evacuated. The median numbers of discharged markers of 2.0 mm, 4.5 mm and 7.0 mm were 5 (0-5), 1 (0-3) and 3 (0-4) at 60 min, 15 (3-18), 10 (6-9) and 13 (11-16) at 120 min (median, 25th-75th percentile), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the numbers of the three types of discharged markers during observation. The lag time (the period from the time of ingestion of the markers to the time when the first marker left the stomach) of the 2.0 mm, 4.5 mm and 7.0 mm markers was 52.5 (45-105), 67.5 (60-105), and 52.5 (45-105) min, respectively, and there was no statistically significant difference. In conclusion, the radiopaque markers of different diameters (below 7.0 mm) left the stomach in the same pattern.
Horikawa
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First Department of Internal Medicine, Hiroshima University School of Medicine, Japan.
D000328:Adult; D004867:Equipment Design; D005471:Fluoroscopy; D005746:Gastric Emptying / Q000502:physiology*; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010827:Physiology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D012016:Reference Values; D013270:Stomach / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D013997:Time Factors