[Functional scintigraphy in the diagnosis of gastroesophageal reflux (author's transl)]

The accepted diagnostical procedures to prove a gastroesophageal reflux by direct or indirect methods do not allow any quantification and are of limited sensitivity. A quantification is possible by use of a gamma-camera with a computer-system after application of a small amount of 99m Tc-DPTA (reflux scintiscan). The high accuracy of this method could be proven by evaluation of 51 patients with suspected gastroesophageal reflux esophagitis or after total gastrectomy. The results were compared with the histological findings. With this method we found after total gastrectomy the expected high incidence of relux. The long-term results after semifundoplication were not as good as after fundoplication. The reflux scintiscan is a less invasive, but reliable method to detect the gastroesophageal reflux.