Does bowel preparation improve the quality of abdominal gallium scintigraphy?

Physiological accumulation of gallium in the intestine is a major weakness of gallium scintigraphy in evaluating the abdomen. In this study, we used t wo different cathartics to evaluate the efficacy of bowel cleansing in impr oving the quality of abdominal gallium imaging. One hundred and fifty patie nts underwent gallium scintigraphy and were randomly divided into three gro ups. Group A received no bowel preparation, Group B received 30 ml of casto r oil the night before imaging, and Group C received bisacodyl the night be fore imaging. Gallium activity in the intestine was rated on a three-point scale from 0 to II based on the anterior view of a delayed 48-h gallium ima ge. Our data showed that the incidence of gallium accumulation in the small intestine was low. On the contrary, there was high prevalence of gallium a ctivity in the colon. Forty-eight percent of Group A patients had obvious g allium activity in the colon. The percentage decreased significantly to 28% and 22% in Groups B and C, respectively. No significant difference was not ed between Group B and Group C. In conclusion, our data suggest that the ap plication of either castor oil or bisacodyl significantly improves the qual ity of 48-h abdominal gallium scintigraphy. There were no significant diffe rences in the efficacy of bowel cleansing on gallium activity between these two laxatives. ((C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins).