Patients undergoing molecular imaging to evaluate their stomach’s ability to clear food are going to have an altogether new kind of breakfast. A study presented at SNM’s 58th Annual Meeting has confirmed that nuclear medicine technologists can effectively use oatmeal products radiolabeled with a medical isotope to target and image the emptying of the stomach. “The current standard for molecular imaging of gastric emptying is radiolabeling egg meal, but there are patients who, either due to lifestyle choices or allergies, cannot eat eggs,” says Tory Maloy, senior nuclear medicine technologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill. “With this research we have demonstrated that there is an equally effective way to label oatmeal for gastric emptying studies.”
