What does the gastro-enterologist expect from nuclear medicine

The close cooperation between the specialists in nuclear medicine and gastroenterology is illustrated by several examples: The rate of bleeding sources within the small intestine, as detected by endoscopy, X-ray contrast studies of the (intestinal) lumen, and angiography, is not sufficiently high, but has been reported to be in a range of 50-100 per cent if labelled autologous erythrocytes are used, provided a bleeding rate of 1 ml/min. at least. Inflammatory areas in cases of Morbus Crohn (skip lesions) are of importance for the evaluation of functional impairments and thus for therapy. Modern studies using labelled granulocytes show a good correlation to endoscopic and histologic findings, both with regard to their spatial distribution and activity. Additional comparisons to the 'gold standard' endoscopy would be desirable. Treatment with monoclonal antibodies, which would act as a radiant 'destroyer' to exclusively destroy the tumour cells, could provide an important approach to therapy of inoperable tumours of the digestive tract. Nuclear medicine also is expected to provide valuable contributions to investigations of the bacterial flora of the small intestine and to coagulation studies in cases of liver failure. AT III-labelling has enabled the intrahepatic AT III-consumption to be detected in cases of liver failure. The gastro-enterologist expects nuclear medicine to cooperate in the solution of clinical and research problems of digestive diseases. (orig.)