The aim of the study was to determine the influence of normal aging on regional transit and the efficiency of bolus clearance during the oral and pharyngeal phases of swallowing. We compared scintigraphically derived oral-pharyngeal transit times and isotope clearance during swallowing in 21 healthy aged volunteers (mean age 68 +/- 8 yr) and 9 young controls (mean age 28 +/- 7.5 yr). Subjects swallowed 5- and 10-ml water boluses mixed with 30 MBq 99mtechnetium tin colloid. Oral and pharyngeal transit times, pharyngeal clearance time, and postswallow residual counts in each region were derived from time-activity curves. Pharyngeal residual counts were significantly greater in the aged than in controls (P = 0.0008), but age did not influence oral residual. Aging significantly prolonged oral transit time (P = 0.02), pharyngeal transit time (P = 0.0004), and pharyngeal clearance time (P = 0.0001). We conclude that normal impairs the efficiency of pharyngeal clearance during swallowing, prolongs scintigraphic measures of oral-pharyngeal transit, and increases the exposure time of the glottis to the swallowed bolus.

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Introduction of a panscan protocol increased the proportion of trauma patients receiving a radiation dose >20 mSv. This increased risk occurred regardless of age or injury severity.

The aim of this study was to develop a method by which rectal and colonic activity could be examined during defaecation under physiological conditions, in order to evaluate whether the colon plays a role in defaecation. Subjects presented to the Nuclear Medicine department on the day following ingestion of oral In-111 labelled DTPA, when they developed the normal urge to defaecate. Defaecation took place in a private room while dynamic scintigraphy of the rectum and colon was recorded. Fourteen subjects were studied (8 normal subjects, 4 with constipation, 2 with irritable bowel syndrome). In 13 subjects the left colon was visualized during defaecation and emptying was clearly observed in 12. The right colon was visualised in 11 subjects and emptying was seen in 7. Mean percentage segmental evacuation was right colon 20%, left colon 32% and rectum 66%. Colonic emptying occurs during defaecation, which is not a process of rectal evacuation only. This has implications for the understanding of the pathophysiology of obstructed defaecation.

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