Dysphagia in Parkinson's disease. Assessment by solid phase radionuclide scintigraphy.

Patients with Parkinson's disease often experience dysphagia, in which case food seems to be blocked in the throat. The patient must swallow over and over to get it down. A radionuclide solid phase esophageal motility study was conducted to evaluate esophageal function of patients with Parkinson's disease. Twenty-seven patients and 27 age-matched normal volunteers were studied. Each subject was placed in the supine position above a gamma camera linked to a computer and was given a 4 mL bolus of solid gelatin containing 75 MBq Tc-99m pertechnetate. Data were acquired in the list mode. A computer routine was used to calculate the total mean transit time, the residual fraction after the first swallow, and the retrograde index. The preliminary results suggest: 1) patients with Parkinson's disease display significantly slowed transit time when compared with normal age-matched controls, and 2) dysphagia of Parkinson's disease may improve with medication. A solid phase esophageal motility study may be used as a monitor of dysphagia in patients with Parkinson's disease in our future studies.