ccml Re: Sunday's Case

[Charles Brault]

--- KMATTOX at aol.com wrote:

>  
> In a message dated 1/22/2007 10:31:29 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
> c_brault at yahoo.com writes:
> 
> Did they  not just find that plain milk is just as efficacious as Barium meal
> 
>  ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> As a contrast media to diagnosis esophageal perforation or  injury?   I was 
> unaware of this new progress.   Can you cite  the reference, even if it is a 
> newspaper article. 
>  
> k

Quick search = . . . 

Milk a Substitute for Barium in Patient X-Rays
By VOA
Dec 12, 2006 - 6:03:47 PM

http://foodconsumer.org/7777/8888/G_eneral_H_ealth_34/Milk_a_Substitute_for_Barium_in_Patient_X-Rays.shtml

By Rose Hoban
Washington DC
12 December 2006

For some time, doctors have known that milk could be used as a way of
highlighting the bowel for radiological studies. Now, a researcher at a New
York hospital has pitted milk against commercially available contrast media and
found it does a comparable job at illuminating the bowel for computer
tomagraphy scans.

Doctor Lisa Shah-Patel tested a group of 168 patients. About 60 of them
received a commercial preparation of diluted barium solution and the rest
received milk. All the subjects had CT scans of their small or large intestine
or stomach. Then Shah-Patel gave the scans to radiologists to read the results,
without the radiologists knowing which patients drank what.

The barium solution did a slightly better job at distending the walls of the
bowels, but the radiologists reading the scans found no difference between
barium and milk in terms of ability to read the X-rays. "Both the diluted
barium base solution and the milk allow the inside of the bowel structure to
appear to gray," Shah-Patel says.

Subjects could tell the difference, especially since they had to drink nearly a
liter of either liquid before their scans.

"We're finding that patients prefer drinking milk, or do not object to drinking
milk as much as they do drinking the diluted barium- based solution."
Shah-Patel says. In addition she notes that patients drinking milk indicated
they experienced fewer abdominal symptoms, including cramps, nausea, vomiting,
flatulence or diarrhea.

Shah-Patel says another advantage to milk is that it's so widely available.
"There's definitely a cost benefit as well, with the diluted barium-based
solution costing about $18 per patient, versus milk, when bought by the quart,
costing less than $1.50 per patient."

Shah-Patel says she'll continue to enroll patients in the study and refine her
results. Her paper was

presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.


***********

Dec 13, 7:13am, 2006
Indian American doctor uses milk for X-rays [siliconindia.com/shownews/34288]
>From the page: "New York: An Indian American doctor here is using milk instead
of commonly used barium as a way of highlighting the bowel for radiological
studies. Lisa Shah Patel of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York tested
168 patients. About 60 received a commonly available diluted barium solution
and the rest milk. All the patients had CT scans of their small or large
intestines. Results showed that there was no difference between barium and milk
in terms of ability to read the X-rays. "Both the diluted barium base solution
and milk allow the inside of the bowel structure to appear in gray," Shah was
reported as saying by Voice of America. "We're finding that patients prefer
drinking milk, or do not object to drinking milk as much as they do drinking
the diluted barium-based solution," Shah said. "There's definitely a cost
benefit as well, with the diluted barium-based solution costing about $18 per
patient versus milk, when bought by the quart, costing less than $1.50 per
patient," he added." Milk is my choice too any day when compared to barium