PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Vijayakumar, Vani
AU  - Briscoe, Elma G.
AU  - Boysen, Theresa L.
AU  - Jimenez, Yvette M.
TI  - Assessment of the Practical Role of a Radionuclide Low-Fat-Meal Solid Gastric Emptying Study
DP  - 2006 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
PG  - 82--85
VI  - 34
IP  - 2
4099  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/34/2/82.short
4100  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/34/2/82.full
SO  - J. Nucl. Med. Technol.2006 Jun 01; 34
AB  - 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.