Cholescintigraphy in the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis

Technetium-99-m-diethyl-IDA (Solco HIDA) cholescintigraphy was performed on 50 patients with suspected acute cholecysitis. The final diagnosis was acute cholecytitis in 34 cases, other biliary tract disease in 5 cases and nonbiliary disease in 11 cases. A nonfilling gallbladder was regarded as indicative of acute cholecystitis. The sensitivity in detecting acute cholecystitis was about 90%, the specificity about 80%; the predictive value of a positive test was about 90% and that of a negative test about 80%. The false positives consisted of two cases of acute pancreatitis with normal gallbladders and one case of coincidental chronic gallbladder disease and duodenal ulcer. The false negatives were examined after one week's treatment. A severe common bile duct obstruction could be detected in cholescintigraphy, but a slight obstruction was not always distinguishable from conditions in which the bile flow was normal.