Background: To review our experience of doing whole gut transit scintigraphy in patients presenting with functional gastrointestinal problems and to determine its clinical usefulness.
Method: All whole gut transit studies using a liquid meal over a 5-year-period were reviewed and clinical outcome assessed.
Results: Fifty-five patients (44 women; mean age 43 years) underwent whole gut transit scintigraphy using indium-111 diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid in water. The main symptoms were constipation (49%), dyspepsia (25%) and diarrhoea (25%). Colonic transit was delayed in 63% of patients with constipation, which was significantly (P=0.005) higher than that in patients with dyspepsia. Delayed colonic transit was also seen in 43% of patients with diarrhoea. Only 26% of patients with constipation had a delay in liquid gastric emptying and small bowel transit. Gastric emptying, small bowel transit and colonic transit were normal in 43, 79 and 29% of patients with dyspepsia, respectively. There was no statically significant difference in gastric emptying and small bowel transit between patients with constipation, diarrhoea and dyspepsia.
Conclusion: Liquid-phase whole gut transit scintigraphy seems to be a useful investigation in patients with chronic gastrointestinal symptoms. Rational use of this modality may help the clinician change the management or better characterize the underlying problem/diagnosis in the majority of patients with functional symptoms.