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Abstract

Seventeen hemiplegic patients (nine men and eight women) aged 18-75 years were followed for 1 year after a cerebrovascular accident in order to study the transit time (TT). They received one red carmin tablet as well as 10 μCi of ⁵¹Cr by mouth. The feces were watched for color and at the same time put in a whole-body counter to study the activity. The two methods showed similar results; 11 of the 17 patients has an increased duration of the gastrointestinal TT with a mean of 5.5 days (3-14 days). This means that the TT is delayed during hemiplegia. After 1 year, all the patients showed a normal TT. Previous studies in spinal cord injury patients demonstrated a delay in TT. It has also been recently observed in healthy volunteers that balloon distension of the rectum delayed the TT significantly. This phenomenon could explain some of the TT delay observed in hemiplegia through dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. Key Words: Transit time—Gastrointestinal tract-Hemiplegia -Rehabilitation.

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Gastrointestinal Transit Time During Hemiplegia: A One-Year Study

Abstract

References