2024年5月9－10日に韓国ソウルで開催されましたThe 16th Congress of the Asian Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biologyで発表して参りました。

Evaluation of constipation in patients receiving psychiatric treatment using a pocket-sized ultrasound device

Objective: Many patients receiving psychiatric treatment frequently suffer from chronic constipation due to the side effects of antipsychotic drugs. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate ultrasound (US) images based on computed tomography (CT) images of stool and gas accumulated in the colon by pocket-type ultrasound in patients with psychiatric treatment-induced chronic constipation.Methods: CT images were taken after the US, which is the gold standard for US images. US was based on the presence or absence of acoustic shadows and multiple reflections and the internal characteristics of the large intestine, which were categorized into four, including hard stool, normal stool, soft stool, and gas retention.Results: A total of 26 patients were evaluated after excluding four cases who meet the exclusion criteria. Hard stools in the colon were observed in 9, gas retention in 9, hard stools and gas retention in 7, and neither hard stools nor gas retention in four patients.Conclusion: This study indicated the possibility of evaluating fecal characteristics using a pocket-type US that can be easily performed at the patient’s bedside. Colonic gas was accurately evaluated using US images with CT images as reference images. This finding is considered to be highly novel.