Assessment of prevalence and validation of gastric emptying scintigraphy in diabetic gastroparesis

INTRODUCTION: Gastroparesis or delayed gastric emptying is a common medical condition in diabetes patients. Scintigraphy technique is commonly used as a standard diagnostic procedure for quantitative assessment of gastroparesis. The aims of this study were determination of an optimized imaging time for diagnosis of gastroparesis and assessment prevalence of gastroparesis. Relation between results of endoscopy and scintigraphy as well as relation between gastric emptying with patient’s sex, blood glucose concentration and functional dyspepsia were also studied.
METHODS: Gastric emptying was assessed in 50 diabetic patients with the mean age of 50.16 years. For evaluation of gastric emptying, a test meal containing 2 pieces of toast, 120 cc non-labeled water and fried egg labeled with 1 mCi of 99mTc was given to each patient then scintigraphy scan was performed immediately after ingestion and was repeated 1, 1.5, 2 and 4 hours after ingestion. In some patients 90-minute dynamic scan was also acquired.
RESULTS: Results of this study revealed that a 4-hours scan after ingestion is more suitable than a 90-minute dynamic scan for evaluation of gastric emptying. There was no statistically significant difference between 1-hour and 2-hour scans, 1-hour and 90-minute scans, 2-hours and 90-minute scans, 2-hour and 4-hour scans. Also there was no difference in FBS with all of scans and patient’s sex and results of gastric emptying scan.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: According to our findings, it can be suggested that prevalence of gastroparesis is more than that of mentioned in some previous studies. Also, the study may demonstrate that for diabetic patients who are suffering from dyspepsia without other evident reasons, a gastric emptying scintigraphy at 2 and 4 hours after meal ingestion may provide desired clinical information.