Gastric Emptying Study

The Nuclear Medicine Technologist will explain the procedure to you and then prepare a meal for the test. The meal consists of scrambled eggs with a small amount of radioactive tracer added. This will enable us to see how food moves through your stomach. There are no side effects associated with the eggs and the radioactive tracer will not make the meal taste any different.

Once you have consumed the eggs you will be positioned lying on your back under the gamma camera. Images are taken over a period of 4 hours. These images detect the radioactive eggs in your stomach and allow us to assess how long it takes to digest a meal.

Our Nuclear Medicine Physician will review the images and issue a report. Once completed, the report will be sent electronically to your referring health professional.

4 hours.

• Your original request form

• Medicare and any Government concession pension or health care cards

• Previous relevant imaging

This examination has no associated side effects.

This examination is not suitable for pregnant women. Breastfeeding mothers may undergo the procedure, but will need to cease breastfeeding for 12 hours after the scan. Breast milk should be expressed & discarded during this period. Breastfeeding may resume after the 12 hours.

Within 4-5 working days.