title: Colonic transit disorders in systemic sclerosis.
abstract: Systemic sclerosis (SS) alters smooth muscle function throughout the gastrointestinal tract, the oesophagus being the segment most often involved. Involvement of the colon, though less common, may lead to life-threatening complications. We studied 23 unselected patients with SS and 20 age-matched healthy controls using radionuclide colon transit studies. The geometric centre (GC) at 4 and 24 hours was used to summarise overall transit in the colon. In patients with SS, colon transit was delayed (GC4: 0.39 +/- 0.36 vs 0.85 +/- 0.45; P=0.001) (GC24: 1.68 +/- 0.9 vs 2.58 +/- 1.08; P=0.006). These findings suggest that delayed colon transit is common in patients with SS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan. sjwang@vhgtc.vghtc.gov.tw
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.forename: D Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: T Y
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: W Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003108:Colonic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D011336:Probability; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D012016:Reference Values; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012595:Scleroderma, Systemic / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013667:Technetium
chemical_list: D013667:Technetium