Update on gastrointestinal scintigraphy

Nuclear medicine offers a variety of studies for evaluating motility throughout the gastrointestinal tract. Gastric emptying remains the gold standard for studying gastric motor function, but its application in most centers remains limited to measuring only total gastric emptying in spite of data that show assessment of both fundal and antal function is of clinical value for evaluating patients with dyspepsia. Similarly, newer methods to study small bowel and colon transit have not gained widespread use. This review summarizes the state-of-the-art of prior established and newer scintigraphic studies with an emphasis on their clinical applications.