Contrast-enhanced radiography is a diagnostic imaging technique that provides high-resolution images of the gastrointestinal tract and plays a prominent role in demonstrating the gastrointestinal motility and transit time in small animals. This study aimed to investigate the effect of pantoprazole on the gastric transit time of liquid barium sulfate contrast medium in mixed-breed dogs under a crossover experimental design. Ten clinically healthy mixed-breed dogs were randomly selected from a shelter in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, Iran. Each dog served as its own control in the first period, where the contrast radiography was done without pantoprazole administration and one-week later, pantoprazole was administered followed by contrast radiography. Initial gastric emptying time (IGET) and complete gastric emptying time (CGET) were noted and data were analyzed. These results demonstrate that CGET was significantly (P<0.05) longer in the dogs treated with Pantoprazole (294±44.3 min) compared to control (240±56.6 min). However, IGET did not differ significantly between the two time periods. Moreover, sex had no significant impact on the gastric emptying times, since considerable variation was not evident even between the male and female subjects. In conclusion, a single dose of pantoprazole significantly delays the complete gastric emptying of a liquid contrast medium in dogs, suggesting the need for caution when interpreting gastrointestinal contrast studies, as pharmacologically induced delay might be mistaken for pathological motility disorders in patients.
Kalantarzadeh et al. (Fri,) studied this question.