Nausea and vomiting are amongst the most severe dose-limiting side effects of chemotherapy. Emetogenic activity in rats can only be evaluated by indirect markers, such as pica (kaolin intake), or delay in gastric emptying. The aim of this work was to study, by radiological methods, the alterations in gastrointestinal motility induced by acute cisplatin in the rat, and to compare them with the development of pica. Rats received cisplatin (0-6 mg kg(-1)) at day 0. In the pica study, individual food ingestion and kaolin intake were measured each day (from day -3 to day 3). In the radiological study, conscious rats received an intragastric dose of medium contrast 0, 24 or 48 h after cisplatin injection, and serial X-rays were taken 0-24 h after contrast. Cisplatin dose-dependently induced both gastric stasis and stomach distension, showing a strict temporal relationship with the induction of both acute and delayed pica. Radiological methods, which are non-invasive and preserve animals' welfare, are useful to study the effect of emetogenic drugs in the different gastrointestinal regions and might speed up the search for new anti-emetics.