Regional gastrointestinal transit times in severe ulcerative colitis

BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal (GI) dysmotility may present secondary to inflammatory bowel disease. The main aim of this study was to investigate GI motility in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients during severe disease activity.METHODS: Twenty patients with severe UC were studied with a novel telemetric capsule system (3D-Transit) designed for minimally invasive, ambulatory assessment of total and regional GI transit times. Ten patients were available for follow-up during remission. Data were compared to those of 20 healthy subjects (HS).KEY RESULTS: Total GI transit time was significantly longer in patients with severe UC (median 44.5 h [range 9.9-102.7 h]) than in HS (median 27.6 h [range 9.6-56.4 h]) (p = 0.032). Additionally, during severe UC, transit time was prolonged through the proximal colon (p = 0.003) and there were strong trends toward longer than normal small intestinal transit time (HS: median 4.9 h [range 3.4-8.3 h] vs severe UC patients: median 5.9 h [range 3.9-11.9 h]; p = 0.053) and colorectal transit times (HS: median 18.2 h [range 1.5-43.7] vs severe UC patients: median 34.9 h [range 0.4-90.9 h]; p = 0.056). Our data further indicate that total GI and colorectal transit times may be prolonged in UC during early remission.CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: Total GI transit times are significantly prolonged during severe UC.