[Characterization of gastric emptying by determination of transit time]

Gastric emptying of a solid test meal labelled with 99mTc-sulphur colloid has been studied in 18 healthy men using a gamma camera with on-line computer. Mean transit time (MTT) was determined by fitting the time-activity histogram to a gamma variate, and the half-time of emptying (T1/2) was calculated by exponential fitting of the down-slope of the C(t) curve. Mean transit times showed a smaller coefficient of variance than T1/2, and this difference was statistically significant (p less than 0.005). This result suggests that MTT may be a more suitable parameter for definition of normal values and for the separation of normal from pathological patterns of emptying.