title: Gastrointestinal transit scintigraphy in chronic constipation evaluation in pediatric age; an infrequent test.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chronic constipation is a common pathology in children. The aim of this paper was to show the usefulness of gastrointestinal transit scintigraphy in pediatric patients with chronic constipation, and the advantages with respect to other imaging techniques, despite our limited experience.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated 5 patients sent to our service with a diagnosis of chronic constipation refractory to treatment. We performed a complete study protocol, including liquid gastric emptying scintigraphy and small and large bowel transit times, using a single dose of111In-DTPA. Following international guidelines regions of interest were defined in stomach, terminal ileum and in 6 regions of the large intestine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All patients showed altered scintigraphy study, showing 4 of them normal radiological tests. Radioisotopic study changed diagnosis in 2 patients and in other 2 patients contributed to clarify it, since discordance between normal radiological tests and abnormal rectal biopsy. One of the patients showed concordance between each imaging modality. The results of the test changed the therapeutic management in 2 cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our limited experience coincides with published data in which scintigraphy study turns out to be a reproducible and accurate method. It provides physiological, quantitative and useful information in the study of constipation, being the unique exploration that allows both global and regional gastrointestinal transit time determination.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Badajoz, Badajoz, España. Electronic address: infantetorre@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Infante
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Badajoz, Badajoz, España.
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Rayo
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Badajoz, Badajoz, España.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Badajoz, Badajoz, España.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: García
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Badajoz, Badajoz, España.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Badajoz, Badajoz, España.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Medicina Nuclear, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Badajoz, Badajoz, España.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huertas
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003248:Constipation / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005772:Gastrointestinal Transit; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging
keywords: (111)In-DTPA; Colonic transit; Constipation; Estreñimiento; Gammagrafía; Scintigraphy; Tránsito colónico