Capsule Motility –Better Than Corn? & Zen Magnets Recall Link

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Zen Magnets Recall (from Twitter feed/Bryan Rudolph):

Link now updated with an FAQ “#Recall: Zen Magnets & Neoballs magnets. Ingestion hazard to children & teens, risk of injury or death. Get refund. https://zenmagnets.com/CPSC-Recall” – @USCPSC Mandated Message #3

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CE Brinck et al. JPGN 2021; 73: 306-313. Regional Gastrointestinal Motility in Healthy Children

This article is a proof-of-concept study describing the use of “3D-Transit system” to provide information on regional gastrointestinal motility. This study examined 20 healthy children who ingested a electromagnetic capsule (21.5 mm x 8.3 mm) which was tracked by a vest detector.

Key findings:

  • Median whole gut transit time was 33.6 (range 10.7–80.5) hours
  • Median gastric emptying time was 1.9 (range 0.1–22.1) hours
  • Median small intestinal transit time was 4.9 (range 1.1–15.1) hours
  • Median colonic transit time was 26.4 (range 6.8–74.5) hours.

Table 1 provides the median values along with 5%, and 95% values.

Limitations: small sample size, and this system requires manual analysis. In addition, the capsule itself due to its size and viscosity may influence transit times.

My take: This capsule motility study suggests that whole GI tract transit averages 34 hrs. This system could provide some objective data on motility in children and it is probably more useful than the corn test (though not as tasty); however, I doubt its use will be more helpful than Sitz markers for the majority.

This image shows the capsule in lower left corner and the vest with the white detector panel.

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