To explore the value of modified colonic transit test in differential diagnosis and treatment of chronic constipation.

52 patients with chronic constipation at Subei People′s Hospital were choosen between January 2013 and June 2015. Modified colonic transit test was performed in 52 patients with different degrees of discharge difficulty and 10 healthy controls. The procedure of modified colonic transit test was as follows: after 72 hours of abstaining from all the laxatives, the patients were performed upper gastrointestinal barium meal examination, and the plain abdominal radiograph were taken 6 hours and 72 hours later respectively, which were used to observe the residues of barium in the colon and rectum, and then the related treatments were performed.

All patients had no gastrointestinal lesions. After 72 hours, 10 healthy controls had no barium residue, and 39 patients had barium residue in colon (diagnosed as a slow transmission type of constipation), and 5 patients had barium residue in the rectum (diagnosis as an outlet obstruction type of constipation), and 8 patients had barium residue in colon and rectum (diagnosis as a mixed type of constipation). All patients were treated with prucalopride (2 mg/d) with or without lactulose (30 mg/d), in which 1 patients with slow transmission type, and 1 patients with outlet obstruction and 8 patients with mixed type of constipation were ineffective and were cured by laparoscopic Jinling procedure.

Modified colonic transit test was useful for the diagnostic of chronic constipation, which is helpful for the differential diagnosis and treatment of different types of constipation.