The role of gastric scintigraphy in primary or post surgical disorders of gastric emptying

Gastric scintigraphy is the gold standard for the measurement of the gastric emptying of a meal because of its reliability and its reproducibility and the respect of physiological conditions. Moreover, this technique allows to measure the emptying of solid and liquid phases simultaneously. Symptoms motivating a gastric scintigraphy, suggest either a gastric stasis (dyspepsia) or a gastric incontinence (dumping syndrome). The two most frequent clinical conditions triggering this test are motility disorders following vagotomy, a delayed emptying of solids is often associated to an accelerated emptying of liquids. Gastric scintigraphy proves quite useful in these conditions, since the diagnosis of such complex abnormalities is uneasy to establish exclusively on a clinical basis. In idiopathic dyspepsia, gastric stasis is proved only in 50 % of the patients. However, a radionuclide study of gastric emptying is seldom ordered because of the common character and good tolerance of these symptoms. In everyday practice, gastric scintigraphy is considered only when gastric or intestinal obstructive lesions have been ruled out. A suggestive clinical picture and/or absence of a deteriorated general condition allow to prescribe a symptomatic treatment. More rarely, equivocal symptoms, degradation of the general condition and unresponsiveness to symptomatic drugs call for gastric scintigraphy. (authors). 241 refs., 2 figs