Consensus Recommendations for Gastric Emptying Scintigraphy: A Joint Report of the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society and the Society of Nuclear Medicine

Abstract

This consensus statement from the members of the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society and the Society of Nuclear Medicine recommends a standardized method for measuring gastric emptying (GE) by scintigraphy. A low-fat, egg-white meal with imaging at 0, 1, 2, and 4 h after meal ingestion, as described by a published multicenter protocol, provides standardized information about normal and delayed GE. Adoption of this standardized protocol will resolve the lack of uniformity of testing, add reliability and credibility to the results, and improve the clinical utility of the GE test.

Association between delayed gastric emptying and upper gastrointestinal symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Additionally, a consensus guideline was created to help standardise measurement of gastric emptying,23 but current literature and gastroenterology practices continue to use suboptimal gastric emptying test methods. Therefore, to assess whether there is a significant relationship between gastric emptying and UGI Sx, it is imperative to determine the relationship independently in studies with optimal versus suboptimal gastric emptying test methodology.…”

Gastroparesis: separate entity or just a part of dyspepsia?

“…Scintigraphy is currently considered the gold-standard for measuring GE. In order to overcome lack of reproducibility of different radiolabelled test meals and different recording techniques adopted in different centres, consensus standards have been internationally developed20 and later adopted by the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society and the Society of Nuclear Medicine 21. The recommended protocol involves a standardised, low-fat, egg-white technetium-99m sulfur colloid radio-labelled meal.…”

Diabetic gastroparesis: what we have learned and had to unlearn in the past 5 years: Figure 1

“…The American Neurogastroenterology and Motility society recommends use of a 99m Tc (technetium) sulfur colloid-labelled egg sandwich as a test meal 74. It is required that scintigraphic measurement continues to 4 h as this has been shown to improve the accuracy of the test 74. However, several centres continue to extrapolate gastric emptying data from 90–120 min readings.…”