@article {Vijayakumar82, author = {Vani Vijayakumar and Elma G. Briscoe and Theresa L. Boysen and Yvette M. Jimenez}, title = {Assessment of the Practical Role of a Radionuclide Low-Fat-Meal Solid Gastric Emptying Study}, volume = {34}, number = {2}, pages = {82--85}, year = {2006}, publisher = {Society of Nuclear Medicine}, abstract = {The aim of this study was to assess the practical role of a low-fat-meal gastric emptying protocol and its effect on a patient{\textquoteright}s compliance and comfort, number of patient referrals, daily nuclear medicine scheduling, patient throughput, and cost-effectiveness. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of patients who underwent low-fat-meal gastric emptying studies between February 2003 and February 2004. The study was approved by the University of Texas Medical Branch institutional review board. Results: A total of 117 studies were identified. There were 36 males and 81 females. A total of 36 patients had prolonged gastric emptying (30.8\%), and 5 patients had rapid emptying (4.3\%). The test meal was well tolerated by 112 of 117 patients (95.8\%); 5 patients were unable to complete the meal (4.3\%). Conclusion: We found that patient tolerance, compliance, and comfort with the low-fat-meal gastric emptying protocol were excellent, increasing the number of patient referrals. In addition, the low-fat-meal protocol can accommodate more patients and hence can be beneficial for busy nuclear medicine sections with a necessity for high patient volumes; the protocol also is cost-effective.}, issn = {0091-4916}, URL = {https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/34/2/82}, eprint = {https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/34/2/82.full.pdf}, journal = {Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology} }