Scintigraphic assessment of gastrointestinal motility: a brief review of techniques and data interpretation

Gastrointestinal transit reflects overall gastrointestinal motor activity and is regulated by a complex interplay between neural and hormonal stimuli. Thus, transit measurements provide a measure of the combined effects of gastrointestinal muscular activity and feedback from the gut and brain. Dysmotility in the different major segments of the gastrointestinal tract may give rise to similar symptoms; hence, localizing transit abnormalities to a specific segment is a valuable element of diagnostic evaluation. Scintigraphy is an effective noninvasive tool to assess gastric emptying as well as small intestinal and colonic transit. This article reviews current imaging techniques, methods for data processing and principles for evaluating results when scintigraphy is used to assess gastrointestinal motility. Furthermore, clinical indications for performing scintigraphy are reviewed.