Morphine-augmented versus CCK-augmented cholescintigraphy in diagnosing acute cholecystitis

Cholescintigraphy was performed after pharmacological manipulation in 60 patients with a clinical suspicion of acute cholecystitis and non-visualization of the gallbladder 1 h after 99Tcm-DISIDA cholescintigraphy. Thirty patients received an intravenous (i.v.) injection of morphine sulphate (group I) and the other 30 patients an i.v. injection of CCK (group II). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 94, 100, 100 and 93% in group I and 100, 84, 79 and 100% in group II, respectively. There was a significant difference between groups (P < 0.05). In conclusion, morphine-augmented cholescintigraphy could supply more reliable diagnostic information and is less time-consuming in patients with a clinical suspicion of acute cholecystitis.