What is lower gastrointestinal tract radiography?

Some people may have indigestion problems. There are many reasons for this problem. We must pay attention to our eating habits and dietary structure. We should not eat greasy food often and eat more food that is good for the body. Supplement some nutrition, vitamins, etc. Poor digestion will lead to constipation or diarrhea, and the digestive tract will be affected. But what is lower gastrointestinal tract radiography? We don’t encounter this problem often, so we don’t know much about it. Let’s take a closer look at it below!

The digestive system generally requires a barium meal examination due to the lack of natural contrast. Although some other advanced imaging techniques, such as CT, MRI, and USG, have shown great advantages in the diagnosis of some diseases, X-ray examination is still the preferred examination technology for digestive system diseases because it can flexibly display the local and overall appearance of organs, examine the morphology and function of the gastrointestinal tract, and is simple and economical. Barium examination is divided into upper gastrointestinal tract contrast radiography, whole gastrointestinal tract contrast radiography, and lower gastrointestinal tract contrast radiography. Below we will discuss how to scientifically and rationally choose different examination methods based on the indications of these methods.

If you only want to know whether there is a tumor or foreign body in the pharynx, whether there is a benign or malignant tumor in the esophagus, or whether there are varicose veins in the esophageal fundus, you can perform esophageal angiography alone. This test does not require any advance preparation from the patient. However, if you want to learn more about the stomach morphology, the condition of the mucosa, and the presence of tumors, you should choose upper gastrointestinal tract radiography. This examination requires the patient to fast and not drink water for at least 6 hours in advance, so the examination is usually scheduled to be performed the next morning after the gastrointestinal tract has "rested" overnight.

Whole gastrointestinal tract radiography, as the name suggests, is an examination of the entire digestive system. It is a process of observing the morphology of the entire digestive system along the path of the barium. However, using this method, the barium is relatively dilute when it flows into the colon, so the indication of lesions after the colon is very limited. Therefore, its purpose is more focused on the examination of the morphology and function of the small intestine. When the barium passes through the ileocecal valve and displays the entire structure of the ileocecal region, the meaningful part of the whole gastrointestinal tract radiography is over. Therefore, the whole gastrointestinal tract contrast examination cannot be simply equated with the sum of upper gastrointestinal tract contrast examination and lower gastrointestinal tract contrast examination.

The above is about what lower gastrointestinal tract radiography is. When the digestive tract is affected, people’s lives are also seriously affected, and many diseases will occur. These diseases are particularly harmful to the body, so I hope everyone can receive timely early treatment. If a child suffers from such a disease, it will affect the child's growth. It is recommended that everyone pay attention to it.