Presentation
Chronic constipation
Patient Data
Markers are scattered throughout abdomen, particularly concentrated in pelvis and likely to be within small bowel loops. Solid fecal matter throughout large bowel.
16 of the 20 markers are retained on day 5, located within the descending and sigmoid colon and rectum.
Case Discussion
There are numerous variations in how a colonic transit study is conducted and how the findings are interpreted. In this case, 20 markers are ingested and an abdominal x-ray taken 4 hours later (day 1). Another abdominal x-ray is taken 96 hours later, labeled as day 5. If more than 4 markers (i.e. more than 20%) are seen, there is slow colonic transit.