Gastric emptying of liquid and small bowel transit in a group of elderly patients (mean age 79 years) was studied, with the elderly subjects compared to two groups of young controls. In 14 elderly patients, the initial rate of gastric emptying was significantly higher than in 14 young controls: the five-minute volume was 159 +/- 30 ml (mean +/- SEM) in the elderly patients and 294 +/- 22 ml in the young controls (p less than 0.005). The two groups' gastric emptying rates after five minutes were not significantly different. Small-bowel transit in 15 elderly patients was not significantly different from that found in 15 younger volunteers. These results suggest that gastric homeostatic mechanisms are impaired in the elderly.

Peripherally harvested lymphocytes have been labelled with ⁵¹Cr, reinjected into human subjects and their distribution then studied. Evidence is presented which suggests faecal loss of ⁵¹Cr represents loss of T lymphocytes and that there is normally a pathway of lymphocyte removal into the gut of probable importance in lymphocyte migration streams. In 9 normal subjects, without structural intestinal disease, faecal loss of lymphocytes over 5 days was 0.20 % (SEM ± 0.06) whereas in 5 patients with untreated coeliac disease faecal loss was 1.13 ± 0.34 %, in 7 with Crohn’s disease it was 1.01 ± 0.21 % and in 5 with intestinal lymphangiectasia loss was 0.61 ± 0.10%. In 1 patient with acute tropical sprue, enteric loss was 0.97 %. By contrast, faecal loss was normal in 3 coeliac patients in remission on a gluten-free diet. Measurements were also made using an external counter. In contrast to the normals, where count rates steadily diminished, an increasing activity was recorded over the umbilicus over 7 days after dose administration in all the disease categories studied with the exception of the treated coeliacs. The finding of an increased enteric loss of lymphocytes may explain many of the immunological abnormalities in the conditions studied.

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AND SummaryThe use of radioisotopes in localization of the placental site facilitates study of alterations in vascular haemodynamics under varying conditions. Measurements demonstrated that during pregnancy the application of abdominal decompression results in a 30 per cent increase in count rate over the placental site. There was a simultaneous fall in count rate over the head and lower limbs during the application of decompression. Severe exercise did not produce any change in count rate over the placental site. Measurements carried out during labour showed no change in count rate over the placental site during a uterine contraction, but a 10 per cent fall in count rate over the uterine wall away from the placental site. The application of abdominal decompression during a uterine contraction in the first stage of labour resulted in a 15 per cent increase in count rate over the placental site and over the uterine wall away from the placental site.

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