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A adolescent inChinareportedly had more than 100 undigested house of cards tea ivory in her abdomen , which caused an abdominal blockage and point up on a CT scan , according to tidings write up .
But could this really materialize ?
Although bubble tea pearls can causeconstipation , they would n’t usually show up on a CT scan , expert said .
The 14 - year - honest-to-goodness girl , who lives in Zhejiang , China , said she had been clog for five mean solar day , was n’t capable to eat and was experiencing stomach pain . A CT scan revealed that there were around 100 " unusual spherical shadows " in the girl ’s abdominal cavity , consort to Asia One . [ 27 Oddest Medical Case report ]
After mouth with the teen about what she ’d eat on recently , doctors concluded that the strange shadows on the CAT scan were actually undigested house of cards tea pearls , which are usually made fromtapioca starch . Although the girl claimed to have consumed just one house of cards tea five sidereal day earlier , her doctors said she would have needed to consume much more than this in society to get her symptoms .
eat a heap of tapioca balls could " for sure " cause constipation , said Dr. Lina Felipez , a pediatric gastroenterologist at Nicklaus Children ’s Hospital in Miami , who was n’t involved in the girl ’s case .
Tapioca is a very buckram food that ’s mostly made ofcarbohydrates . By itself , tapioca likely would n’t cause significant constipation , Felipez said . But the ball typically contain other additives that can lend to constipation . In peculiar , an additive calledguar gummay play a character in cause digestive issues — guar gum is a fibre that helps adjudge the formal together and make them stickier . Guar gum also expands when it comes in link with water supply , Felipez tell .
Interestingly , guar chewing gum can be used to handle both impairment anddiarrhea , Felipez said . High window pane of guar gum can cause a blockage of the esophagus and intestines , concord toWebMD .
However , what ’s amaze is that tapioca , guar gum and other ingredient typically used in tapioca testicle in the U.S. would not show up on a CT scan . These ingredient are n’t " radiopaque , " meaning they do n’t show up onX - raysor CT scan , Felipez said . That ’s because these ingredients do not draw a blank the eccentric of radiation used in X - electron beam . ( Instead , they allow the actinotherapy to pass through , and thus remain invisible on X - rays . )
It ’s possible that another character of additive used in China was make the tapioca ball to show up on the CT , she suppose . But it ’s ill-defined what kind of additive this would be .
In 2015,Vice reportedthat a patient in China see bloodless dots on their CT CAT scan after run through bubble tea ; and a reporter also saw similar white dots on her CT after consuming a bubble tea from the same shop . At that time , rumors were fly that the pearls were made of old tires and shoes , which was never confirmed .
In the adolescent young lady ’s type , she was treated with a laxative and sent place , allot toBusiness Insider .
Originally published onLive Science .
