title: Bowel function in acute stroke patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate factors related to bowel function and colon motility in acute stroke patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-one stroke patients (29 males, mean age 63.4±13.6 years, onset 13.4±4.8 days) were recruited and divided into two groups: constipation (n=25) and non-constipation (n=26) groups. We evaluated the amount of intake, voiding function, concomitant swallowing problem and colon transit time (CTT) using radio-opaque markers for ascending, descending and rectosigmoid colons. The Adapted Patient Evaluation Conference System (APEC), Korean version of Modified Bathel Index (K-MBI) and Motricity Index (MI) were evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The constipation group showed significantly prolonged CTT of ascending, descending and entire colon (p<0.05) and more severe swallowing problems (p=0.048). The APEC scale (2.65±1.44 vs 1.52±0.92, p=0.001), K-MBI scores (59.4±14.4 vs 28.0±24.3, p<0.001) and MI scores (69.1±22.3 vs 46.8±25.9, p=0.001) of the constipation group were significantly lower compared to the non-constipation group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated that bowel function in acute stroke patients was associated with functional status and swallowing function, indicating the need for intensive functional training in post-stroke constipation patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul 138-736, Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Hwa
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: Min Ho
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Bo Ryun
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Eun Young
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Ji Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Park