AJP - Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology, Vol 255, Issue 4 529-G534, Copyright © 1988 by American Physiological Society
Quantitative measurement of feline colonic transit
B. Krevsky, M. B. Somers, A. H. Maurer, L. S. Malmud, L. C. Knight and R. S. Fisher
Department of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19140.
Colonic transit scintigraphy, a method for quantitatively evaluating the
movement of the fecal stream in vivo, was employed to evaluate colonic
transit in the cat. Scintigraphy was performed in duplicate in five cats
and repeated four times in one cat. After instillation of an 111In marker
into the cecum through a surgically implanted silicone cecostomy tube,
colonic movement of the instillate was quantitated for 24 h using gamma
scintigraphy. Antegrade and retrograde motion of radionuclide was observed.
The cecum and ascending colon emptied rapidly, with a half-emptying time of
1.68 +/- 0.56 h (mean +/- SE). After 24 h, 25.1 +/- 5.2% of the activity
remained in the transverse colon. The progression of the geometric center
was initially rapid, followed later by a delayed phase. Geometric center
reproducibility was found to be high when analyzed using simple linear
regression (slope = 0.92; r = 0.73; P less than 0.01). Atropine (0.1 mg/kg
im) was found to delay cecum and ascending colon emptying and delay
progression of the geometric center. These results demonstrate both 1) the
ability of colonic transit scintigraphy to detect changes in transit
induced by pharmacological manipulation and 2) the fact that muscarinic
blockade inhibits antegrade transit of the fecal stream. We conclude that
feline colonic transit may be studied in a quantitative and reproducible
manner with colonic transit scintigraphy.
