From Wikipedia:
What are the likely reasons for this test to be given?
The author/artist of the webcomic SMBC, had this done and he even did a comic about it (Link). He said he is fine, but I’m curious as to why it would be done.
Thanks.
I had one when I was experiencing a problem with swallowing food. I think in fact I have GERD (or as it’s called here, GORD) but at the time they were looking for something higher up in my oesophagus.
It tastes like chalk, and it’s fascinating to see your innards in real-time x-ray
I had quite a few but that was way back in the 70’s and it was in connection with a bleeding ulcer (that was way before it was understood what really causes ulcers). I was unaware they were still around.
I had one to test for reflux about 20 years ago (Jesus, I am getting old). I drank it and they put me on a tilt table. you could se the stuff inside me and the idea was to see if my stomach flap wasn’t closing allowing the contents to come up in my throat. it was fascinating, but it was like drinking a pack of crushed chalk.
…to confirm the existence & severity of hiatus hernia. Its symptoms are quite painful, and are often confused with heart attack. The stomach stix up into the chest thru the hiatus opening, the same one the esophagus runs thru. 85% of us are estimated to have it, most of whom won’t feel any symptoms.
It can also be used to determine if a person has esophageal varices or Barrett’s abnormality.
I’ve had to drink a barium sulfate suspension several times for CT scans. I don’t know the science behind it, but they assist in imaging the GI tract. I had to drink two large bottles of it, over the course of 90 minutes, drinking specific quantities at specific times. This makes sure as much of the GI tract as possible is coated before the scan.
Had this many times for cancer scans as I am a lymphoma survivor. They also made me drink this when looking for internal organ damage after I broke a couple ribs and got a large wound in my side during a “car mishap” (long story).
Barium is radio-opaque. In other words, it shows as white on x-ray. By shallowing it, the CT or x-ray can trace it’s path through the digestive tract
I had one about a month ago, MS. They had me swallow lots of drinks and different items of various textures. They kept apologizing for the taste but I never noticed. Tasted like sweet milk milk, applesauce and graham crackers.
Sometimes, a barium swallow turns out to show much more than was intended. Have a gander at this image. Ain’t that something! The barium went down the wrong ‘tube’ and wound up providing a beautiful image of the breathing tubes (bronchi). Not too surprisingly, the patient died.
Indeed, one of the reasons that barium swallows are not performed very much nowadays is the risk (and consequence) of ‘aspiration’. In other words, if the person manages to inhale the barium instead of swallowing it, it can be fatal - barium in the breathing tubes and lungs elicits an intense inflammatory response. (Of course, the main reason for abandoning barium swallows is that endoscopy sees most things much better).
So, when is a barium swallow still the preferred method to visualize the esophagus/stomach? Answer: to uncover things not well seen by direct inspection. Two examples (nicely shown on the Wiki page for barium swallows) are 1. to check for leaks out of the esophagus (a pinhole sized hole would likely not be seen on endoscopy) and 2. to check for outpouchings from the esophagus (e.g. Zenker’s diverticulum). I should also add a third indication; reflux (GERD) is also shown well by barium swallows.
I had it 25 or so years ago when I had mysterious abdominal pain. Never did find out what the pain was, it just eventually went away. Docs chalked it up (ha!) to mittelschmerz, Mom is still convinced it was appendicitis that spontaneously resolved. But I’m going to go out on a limb and suppose that SMBC’s author doesn’t have mittelschmerz. 
My SO had a contrast CT done a couple of years ago when he had severe abdominal pain and bloating with no bowel movements for 3 days. The test revealed diverticulitis with a bowel perforation, and emergency surgery to remove the damaged bowel and put in a temporary colostomy was done. I’m not 100% sure that his contrast agent was barium (I was too worried about him to ask), but it’s one of several “dyes” (it’s not really a dye, but it’s called that) that can be used for a contrast CT.
KarlGauss, that picture is gorgeous! Shame about the patient. 
I had to swallow some once. It was “berry”-flavored. I told the nurse “This is like something on Fear Factor!”
Really? Just asking since my mom had one done when she was first diagnosed with ALS and the whole reason the neurologist wanted it was to see if she was aspirating food.(They let me watch, turned out she aspirated a little of it but if she tucked her chin she wouldn’t.) Actually in the end she still passed away from aspirational pneumonia a few months later anyway. (Since she was going down hill fast and didn’t want them to do the peg tube early on. By the time she was kind of ok with doing it she was far too weak for the surgery.)
Indeed, that is a good reason for such a study (and I was lazy lumping it in with diagnosing reflux when aspiration is clearly different). As an aside, the amount of barium your mom had would probably be much less than with a barium swallow which attempts to coat much of the stomach and esophagus. To document aspiration, not much is required.
I am sorry about your mom. ALS is a curse.
Where do they get the barium, from Africa or Europe?