title: Scintigraphic scoring system for grading severity of gastro-esophageal reflux on 99mTc sulfur colloid gastro-esophageal reflux scintigraphy: A prospective study of 39 cases with pre and post treatment assessment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study aimed at developing a scoring system for scintigraphic grading of gastro-esophageal reflux (GER), on gastro-esophageal reflux scintigraphy (GERS) and comparison of clinical and scintigraphic scores, pre- and post-treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 39 cases with clinically symptomatic GER underwent 99mTc sulfur colloid GERS; scores were assigned based on the clinical and scintigraphic parameters. Post domperidone GERS was performed after completion of treatment. Follow up GERS was performed and clinical and scintigraphic parameters were compared with baseline parameters.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Paired t-test on pre and post domperidone treatment clinical scores showed that the decline in post-treatment scores was highly significant, with P value < 0.001. The scintigraphic scoring system had a sensitivity of 93.9% in assessing treatment response to domperidone, specificity of 83.3% i.e., 83.3% of children with no decline in scintigraphic scores show no clinical response to Domperidone. The scintigraphic scoring system had a positive predictive value of 96.9% and a negative predictive value of 71.4%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  GERS with its quantitative parameters is a good investigation for assessing the severity of reflux and also for following children post-treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nuclear Medicine, Narayana Hrudayalaya Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Ameya D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Puranik
authors.forename: Gopinathan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nair
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aggarwal
authors.forename: Abhijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bandyopadhyay
authors.forename: Ajit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shinto
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zade
keywords: Domperidone; gastro-esophageal reflux; scintigraphy; scoring system