%0 Journal Article %A Vani Vijayakumar %A Elma G. Briscoe %A Theresa L. Boysen %A Yvette M. Jimenez %T Assessment of the Practical Role of a Radionuclide Low-Fat-Meal Solid Gastric Emptying Study %D 2006 %J Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology %P 82-85 %V 34 %N 2 %X 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'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. %U https://tech.snmjournals.org/content/jnmt/34/2/82.full.pdf