What can a barium meal test reveal?

When we go to the hospital for a physical examination, we will find a barium meal test. Generally, we will rarely come into contact with this test. Mainly, friends who have stomach discomfort will undergo this test to discover their condition. This examination is different from ordinary tests. It does not use instruments directly to test a certain part of the body, but is taken orally. So what can a barium meal test reveal?

What can a barium meal test reveal? Barium meal fluoroscopy is mainly used to take gastroscopy photos. Before undergoing a gastroscopy, the patient eats a barium meal, which does not dissolve in gastric acid containing hydrochloric acid, and can thus successfully stick to the stomach wall like ingested food. Areas of the stomach wall with surface loss such as ulcers cannot be adhered to. When taking an X-ray of the stomach, since X-rays cannot penetrate solid barium sulfate, the barium meal will leave a shadow on the photo, and the part without a shadow is the lesion.

Barium meal examination of the digestive tract cannot be used to confirm gastric cancer, but it can be used as a preliminary screening method for gastric cancer. If it is initially found that there may be gastric cancer, a fiber gastroscopy will be needed to further confirm it.

Barium meal radiography, also known as barium radiography of the digestive tract, is an examination method that uses barium sulfate as a contrast agent to show whether there are any lesions in the digestive tract under X-ray irradiation. Unlike barium enema, barium meal radiography involves the oral administration of contrast agents, which allows for clearer radiological examinations of the entire digestive tract, especially the upper digestive tract. The barium meal used for gastrointestinal examination is medicinal barium sulfate (i.e. a suspension of barium sulfate). Therefore, it is insoluble in water and lipids, and will not be absorbed by the gastrointestinal mucosa, so it is basically non-toxic to humans.

Do you understand what a barium meal test can reveal? Generally, barium meal examination is mainly used to screen for gastric cancer. It can preliminarily determine whether you have gastric cancer. You can also do a fiber gastroscopy to confirm whether you have gastric cancer. In particular, the entire digestive tract of our human body can be examined, and the location of the lesion can be accurately found.