Background: There are no reports to prove the repeatability of gastric transit time (GTT) and small bowel transit time (SBTT) in capsule endoscopy (CE).
Objective: To clarify the repeatability and factors that affect GTT/SBTT in CE.
Methods: We analyzed the data of 150 healthy subjects from our previous randomized controlled trial that compared small intestinal injuries between two 14-day treatment groups: 1) celecoxib and 2) loxoprofen + lansoprazole. Correlation of GTT/SBTT with pre- and post-treatment CE was analyzed. In addition, the associations of pre-treatment CE SBTT with physical factors, post-treatment CE SBTT and the presence of small intestinal mucosal injuries were analyzed.
Results: Analyses of 148 subjects pre-treatment CE and 146 subjects post-treatment CE were performed. There were no significant differences between mean GTT and SBTT before and after treatment. Both GTT (𝜌 = 0.22, p < 0.01) and SBTT (𝜌 = 0.47, p < 0.0001) showed positive correlations between pre- and post-treatment CE. In pre-treatment CE, physical factors and the presence of small intestinal mucosal injury had no associations with SBTT.
Conclusions: Moderate correlation in SBTT and slight correlation in GTT were shown on repeated CE. The factors affecting SBTT were not clarified in this analysis.
Keywords: Small bowel transit time; capsule endoscopy; factors; gastric transit time; repeatability.