Diagnostic significance of apparent abnormal bowel activity on gallium-67 scans in AIDS patients

This paper reports twenty-one Ga-67 studies of 19 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) analyzed to investigate the relationship between clinically acute gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and abnormal scintigraphic bowel activity. WB images were obtained at times ranging from 4 to 192 hours with most obtained at 48 and 72 hours. Abnormal bowel activity was observed in nine of 21 examinations. Patients experienced acute GI symptoms during seven studies. Gallium scan results and clinical symptoms agreed in 13 cases; both were positive in four and negative in nine. However, five scans showed abnormal activity in asymptomatic patients, while three normal studies were obtained in patients with clinically evident GI disease. The sensitivity was 57%, and the specificity 64%, the positive predictive value 0.44, and the negative predictive value 0.75. This study suggests that gallium imaging is unreliable in assessing for acute bowel disease in AIDS patients