Gastrointestinal motility in patients with irritable bowel syndrome studied by using radiopaque markers

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has been identified as a physiologic abnormality, but no test has been established as a diagnostic standard for gastrointestinal dyskinesia in IBS patients. The aim of this study was to investigate gastrointestinal motility in patients with IBS by using radiopaque markers.

Gastrointestinal motility was studied in IBS patients (n = 72), constipation patients (n = 19), diarrhoea patients (n = 9), and healthy controls (n = 23). Using three types of radiopaque markers, analysis was performed to establish the transit time and a new indicator, the 'scattering index'.

Transit times were not characteristic in IBS. The patients with IBS had significantly higher scattering indexes in the colon and total gut than the healthy controls and the patients with constipation and diarrhoea. The transit time and scattering index of the colon were linearly correlated in the healthy controls and the constipation and diarrhoea patients but were not correlated in the IBS patients. Using transit time and scattering index was a reliable means of evaluating gastrointestinal motility in IBS patients, with a sensitivity of 65% and a specificity of 96%.

Three days' use of the radiopaque marker method was useful for providing an objective means of detecting gastrointestinal dysmotility in IBS patients.