National survey of gastric emptying studies in the UK

This study was undertaken to investigate the extent of variation in meals, radiopharmaceuticals and methodology used for gastric emptying studies in the UK. Materials and methods Overall, 178 nuclear medicine departments across the UK were contacted by telephone and the gastric emptying protocol was requested. In all, 128 (72%) performed routine gastric emptying studies; 83 protocols were received. Results Liquid meal gastric emptying: 15 departments performed liquid gastric emptying either as a dual isotope technique (27%) or as a separate test using 99mTc-diethylenetriamine pentacetic acid (53%) or 99mTc-colloid (20%). The radiopharmaceutical was administered in a variety of liquid mediums including water, orange juice/squash or milk. Although dynamic acquisition was most often used for liquid gastric emptying (60%), significant number of departments used static images (40%). Solid meal gastric emptying: 99mTc was the radioisotope most predominantly used for solid meals (98%). 99mTc-colloid was the most commonly used radiopharmaceutical (38%), followed by macroaggregated albumin (25%) and diethylenetriamine pentacetic acid (23%). Egg-based meals are most popular (59%) followed by porridge (27%) that was also used as an alternative to egg in some departments. Alternative meals (cooked meals, ready meals, All-Bran, Weetabix, etc.) were used in 22% of the surveyed departments. Patient preparation and positioning: There was a wide range in patient preparation and methodol...
Source: Nuclear Medicine Communications - Category: Nuclear Medicine Tags: Original Articles Source Type: research