An evaluation of 99mTc pertechnetate scanning for the detection of coeliac disease and Crohn's disease.

To investigate the use of abdominal scintiscanning in the detection of small bowel pathology, the accumulation of pertechnetate (99mTc), following intravenous injection, has been studied in 21 patients with coeliac disease, 13 patients with Crohn's disease and in 83 control subjects without known small bowel disease. Although a trend for a greater accumulation of 99m Tc was noted in patients with coeliac disease and Crohn's disease compared with controls (P less than 0.025) there was a large overlap in individual studies. Under the conditions of this study the accumulation of 99mTc by the small bowel did not provide a reliable diagnostic test for coeliac disease or Crohn's disease of the small intestine. The accumulation of 99mTc pertechnetate by normal small bowel suggests that scintiscanning with this radiopharmaceutical does not provide a consistently reliable method for the detection of small bowel pathology.