Cholecystokinin cholescintigraphy: detection of abnormal gallbladder motor function in patients with chronic acalculous gallbladder disease

Abstract

CCK cholescintigrams were performed in 374 patients with recurrent postprandial right upper quadrant pain, biliary colic, and a normal gallbladder sonogram and/or cholecystogram. The results of these examinations were correlated with the patients' final medical/surgical diagnoses. Twenty-seven patients recruited as control volunteers without objective clinical evidence of biliary disease also underwent CCK cholescintigraphy to determine if the degree of gallbladder contraction post-CCK differs in symptomatic versus asymptomatic subjects. Decreased gallbladder motor function was identified (maximal gallbladder ejection fraction response to CCK less than 35%) in 94% of patients with histopathologically confirmed chronic acalculous cholecystitis or the cystic duct syndrome and in 88% of patients clinically believed to have chronic acalculous biliary disease. Decreased gallbladder motor function does not distinguish symptomatic from asymptomatic gallbladder disease.