Assessment of gastric accommodation in patients with functional dyspepsia using 99mTc-pertechtenate SPECT imaging: Though practical, it is not very commonly used

INTRODUCTION: Impaired gastric accommodation has been as one the main symptom in patients with functional dyspepsia. The aim of present study was to assess gastric accommodation in patients with functional dyspepsia using SPECT imaging.
METHODS: Number of 24 patients with functional dyspepsia and 50 healthy volunteers as control group was selected in this study. All participants were administrated 5 mCi99mTc-pertechtenate intravenously then served with a low fat meal. Finally, SPECT scanning was performed 20 minutes after the serving meal for all cases.
RESULTS: Based on the scintigraphic data, gastric volumes have been significantly increased after eating the food in both patients and control group. We also found that while there was no significant difference in patients and control group with respect to fasting gastric volumes but postprandial gastric volume of patients has been reduced significantly in comparison to healthy individuals (p value<0.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Measuring gastric volume using SPECT can be a valuable method in detection of functional dyspepsia and differentiation of it with other organic disorders.