Single- vs. double-contrast gastrointestinal studies: critical analysis of reported statistics.

A literature review of Western publications for the reported sensitivities of single- and double-contrast gastrointestinal examinations indications that certain claims of superiority for the double-contrast technique may be optimistically misleading. Analysis of reports on detection of four entities-gastric cancer, gastric ulcer, duodenal ulcer, and colonic polyps-suggests superiority for the double-contrast barium enema for detection of colonic polyps. However, no advantage for single- or double contrast examinations was demonstrable for the detection of gastric cancer, gastric ulcer, or duodenal ulcer.