Scintigraphy in gastroesophageal reflux disease: a comparison to endoscopy, LESp, and 24-h pH score, as well as to simultaneous pH monitoring.

We compared scintigraphy to other reflux tests in 45 symptomatic patients. Sensitivity of 24-h pH score was 82%, endoscopy 64%, and LESp 33%. Scintigraphy was insensitive (36%), although 50% of patients with esophagitis had a positive test. Specificity and positive predictive value were good (all greater than or equal to 88%) in discerning patients with an abnormal 24-h pH score and esophagitis. We suggest scintigraphy as the first diagnostic test to confirm frequent reflux events (REs) and normal clearance in the subgroup of patients with severe endoscopic esophagitis, and manometry and 24-h pH monitoring when scintigraphy is negative. We also compared scintigraphy to simultaneously performed pH monitoring in detecting individual postprandial REs and their clearance. The two methods agreed in only 25% of total reflux events. Scintigraphy was superior at detection of reflux of buffered gastric contents and detection of additional REs during acid clearing intervals, whereas only the pH probe detected REs after gastric emptying. We conclude that scintigraphy has a limited role as a diagnostic test in gastroesophageal reflux disease, and much potential as a research tool, especially in combination with the pH probe.