Glucagon facilitates colonoscopy and reduces patient discomfort: a randomized double-blind controlled trial with salivary amylase stress analysis

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Glucagon, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Who Took Part

The study group was 70 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

After colonoscopy, patients completed questionnaires on pain, abdominal fullness, and acceptance of future colonoscopy.

In addition, the researchers evaluated patient discomfort objectively with a newly developed portable analyzer of salivary amylase activity.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Glucagon group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Glucagon.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Glucagon could be set against what happens without it.

Difficulty in scope manipulation was scored by endoscopists, and times for cecal intubation, observation, and the number of polyps detected by colonoscopy were also recorded.

This study was performed double-blind, and assignments were not disclosed to patients or to endoscopists.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Amylases, Colonoscopy, Procedural Sedation, Glucagon, Mass Screening, Pain and Pain Measurement.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Glucagon in 70 patients.

Results are reported in around 4 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2013 (European journal of gastroenterology & hepatology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Glucagon compound page, all human trials.