Scintigraphic evaluation of gastroesophageal reflux following gastrectomy

We used scintigraphy to detect and quantify gastro-esophageal reflux, and determined the sensitivity of this method for identifying patients with clinical symptoms and/or endoscopic evidence of reflux. Thirty gastrectomy patients with heartburn and regurgitation, and 8 healthy controls were studied. The gastro-esophageal reflux index, calculated from imaging data, correlated significantly with the symptom score of the subjects, and the index was significantly larger in the symptomatic patients group (7.07 +/- 1.21) than in the healthy control group (1.54 +/- 0.22) (p < 0.001). Our study suggests that scintiscanning is capable of detecting gastro-esophageal reflux accurately, rapidly, noninvasively, and with a high degree of sensitivity. In addition, scintiscanning can be employed to quantify reflux in gastrectomy patients.