Dynamic scintigraphy of the oesophagus in the evaluation of reflux oesophagitis.

A method is presented which combines gastro-oesophageal reflux quantification and oesophageal transit measurement so as to differentiate true reflux from residual oesophageal activity. A group of 33 subjects with gastro-oesophagitis reflux symptoms and endoscopically confirmed reflux oesophagitis and a group of 21 asymptomatic subjects with normal oesophageal, gastric and duodenal endoscopic findings were examined. The subjects were given 37 MBq 99mTc-Sn-colloid in saline orally and then scintiscanned dynamically. The gastro-oesophageal quantification was done after transit measurement and after the oesophageal time activity (to detect residual oesophageal activity) reached its minimum. The difference in the reflux indices between the two groups was highly significant. In low-grade oesophagitis measured reflux was lower than in higher grades of disease. Only 4.7% false-positive results were observed with a specificity of 95%, indicating that this method may be superior to methods published earlier.