[Acceleration of passage through the small intestine by caerulein (author's transl)].

Passage through the small intestine was significantly accelerated after intramuscular injection of ceruletide (synthetic caerulein, F.I. 6934), 0.50 to 0.75 mug/kg body-weight. Average passage took 62 +/- 41 min (106 patients, with various suspected or demonstrated small-intestinal involvement, excluding malabsorption syndrome, sprue or collagen diseases) after caerulein, while in a control group of 83 patients with radiologically normal small intestine it was 126 +/- 62 min (P less than 0.001). In 75% of patients there was no evidence of induced change in radiological pattern of the small intestine. Increased local contractions were observed in a quarter of patients, but did not impair the diagnostic interpretation.