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. 2025 Jul 2;21(1):417.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-025-04862-1.

Assessment of the effect of prokinetic drugs on transit time and gastrointestinal cleanliness in capsule endoscopy

Andrzej Rychlik  1 , Ewa Kaczmar  1 , Ida Mikulska  1   2 , Krystyna Makowska  3
Affiliations

Assessment of the effect of prokinetic drugs on transit time and gastrointestinal cleanliness in capsule endoscopy

Andrzej Rychlik et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Endoscopic examinations are increasingly used in veterinary medicine. Examination using flexible endoscopes is limited to the anterior gastrointestinal tract (panendoscopy) and colon (colonoscopy), while a significant part of the small intestine remains unexamined. Capsular endoscopy is increasingly used, allowing macroscopic assessment of the entire digestive tract. The current study assessed the effect of prokinetic drugs on transit time and cleanliness of the tested part of the digestive tract in capsule endoscopy.

Methods: The study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of two prokinetic drugs (metoclopramide and cisapride) in capsule endoscopy studies while assessing the quality of the macroscopic image. Each animal included into the study had endoscopic examination three times - without the administration of prokinetic drugs, after receiving metoclopramide and after receiving cisapride.

Results: The total passage time of the capsule through the gastrointestinal tract was the longest in the group receiving metoclopramide (691.33 min) and the shortest in the group receiving cisapride (584.17 min). The best quality images were observed in the control group.

Conclusion: This research has confirmed the hypothesis that administration of prokinetic drugs increases the probability of recording the entire macroscopic image of the gastrointestinal tract during endoscopy in dogs. A negative feature of their administration is significantly reduced recording quality because of the level of cleanliness of the tested gastrointestinal section.

Keywords: Canine; Capsule endoscopy; Digestive tract; Dogs; Endoscopy; Prokinetic drugs.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Animals included in the study are potential donors for fecal transplants. Before qualifying an animal as a donor, it must be certain that it is a completely healthy animal, without any subclinical changes in the digestive tract. Therefore, in accordance with the content of the ACT on animal health care facilities (Journal of Laws 2019, item 24) issued by the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland the approval of the ethical committee was not required. Authors declare no IACUC or other approval was needed. All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution at which the studies were conducted. A verbal permission from the owners were taken to include the animals in the study. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Photograph taken during endoscopic examination of the small bowel section of dog no. 6 without the administration of prokinetic drugs (group C). Cleanliness qualified as good (2)– no digesta in the GI tract, with possible small, individual granules of undigested feed, percentage of uncovered image 80–100%
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Photograph taken during endoscopic examination of the small bowel section of dog no. 6 after receiving cisapride (group II). Cleanliness qualified as satisfactory (1)– small amounts of liquid digesta in the GI tract that locally impair the view of the small and large bowel mucosa, percentage of uncovered image 60–80%
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Photograph taken during endoscopic examination of the small bowel section of dog no. 6 after receiving metoclopramide (group I). Cleanliness qualified as poor (0)– large amounts of digesta prevent accurate examination of the intestinal mucosa, percentage of uncovered image 0–60%
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Graphs showing capsule transit time in every part of the digestive tract in all studied groups. The results are shown as a mean transit time ± SD from 6 dogs in each group. Group C– control, group I–after receiving metoclopramide, group II– after receiving cisapride. Statistically significant differences are marked with *
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Graphs showing cleanliness score evaluation in every part of the digestive tract in all studied groups. The results are shown as a mean score from 6 dogs in each group. Group C– control, group I–after receiving metoclopramide, group II– after receiving cisapride. Statistically significant differences are marked with *
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