Advances in gastric emptying studies by means of computerized scintigraphy

Gastric emptying studies were begun in 1833. However, as information on this phenomenon became more available it became more difficult to unify studies in order to make them more applicable for the study and treatment of functional disturbances and organic diseases. In this work an innocuous, objective and precise method is described, that consists of the study of gastric emptying in two stages in healthy individuals. In the first, basic substances of food were administered and in the second, usual 1,050 calorie meals all marked with Technetium-99 m macroaggregates, were given. Two scintillation cameras were used coupled to computerized data processing systems from where quantitative information and black and white Polaroid pictures were obtained. In the first stage, six healthy volunteers were studied who received basic food substances in different sessions. In the second stage, 10 healthy volunteers were studied who received a type of meal common in our environment. In all cases gastric emptying curves were obtained plotting radioactivity counts v.s. time. Weibull's distribution was the statistical method applied. According to the ingested substances, results showed different emptying curves of a complex exponential type. Although gastric emptying is immediate, it is parallel to the presence of plateaus in the initial part of the study; an apparently delayed phenomenon that had been overlooked and is explained in the discussion part of this paper. Results obtained have offered the possibility of an abundant volume of studies that should clarify existing doubts in the future with a wide field for clinical application.