[First experience with diagnostic nuclear medicine in gastrointestinal hemorrhage]

The search for the source of intraabdominal bleeding in the small intestine from Treitz' ligament to Bauhin's valve and in the large intestine up to the left flexure provides major difficulties: On the one hand angiographic examinations often were disappointing, on the other hand emergency endoscopy without time-consuming preparations is impossible. Therefore 14 patients during the period of January 1981 till September 1982 were examined with nuclear medicine in order to detect the localization of previously unidentified intestinal hemorrhage. The examination is conducted with the patient's own erythrocytes marked with technetium and requires comparison of early and late scintigraphies. The actual process of in-vitro tracing can be performed rapidly. In case the hemorrhage has stopped at the time of this examination, a later-date scintigraphy is possible without renewed injection up to 12 hours later. In 14 patients examined this way, the localization of hemorrhage could be identified in 50%. The 7 patients without recognizable source of hemorrhage showed no persistency of bleeding later on. The nuclear medical examination for identification of unknown intraabdominal hemorrhage does not burden the patient and requires no preparation. Therefore this technique serves as a valuable expansion to the existing range of diagnostic tools.