SCINTIGRAPHIC TEST OF GASTRIC-EMPTYING AND MOTILITY - PRELIMINARY-RESULTS IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC GASTRITIS

To record gastric peristalsis using a conventional scintigraphic gastr ic emptying test and the frame rate was increased to 1 frame per 3 s a t 10, 30, and 50 min postprandially. The gastric contraction frequency was obtained from the first harmonic of a Fourier transform of a gast ric region of interest (ROI) curve. The propagation of gastric contrac tions was better revealed from computed functional images of the phase and amplitude distribution as compared with the multiple scintigraphi c images. The maximal count-rate changes per pixel were calculated as an estimate of the most prominent regional contractile activity of the gastric wall. Among 12 patients with chronic gastritis the group with more severe dyspeptic complaints (n = 6) had significantly higher cou nt-rate changes per pixel when compared with the group with minor comp laints (20.0, 21.1 and 14.2 vs 12.9, 12.0, and 10.4 counts/pixel x s a t 10, 30, and 50 min, respectively; p < 0.05). The mean half-times of gastric emptying (61, SD 11 vs 54, SD 13 min) and the mean gastric con traction frequencies (2.99, SD 0.19; 3.09, SD 0.33; 3.07, SD 0.10 vs 3 .15, SD 0.15; 3.17, SD 0.13; 3.23, SD 0.20 cycles/min at 10, 30, and 5 0 min, respectively) did not show significant differences between both groups. Our preliminary results agree with the hypothesis of the occu rrence of more powerful, nonexpulsive gastric-wall contractions in pat ients with more severe dyspeptic complaints. Hence, additional quantif ication of gastric motility allowed a more detailed evaluation of gast ric-motor-activity disorders that were for so long not accessible to c onventional gastric-emptying tests.