Scintigraphic evaluation of oesophageal transit during radiotherapy to the mediastinum

Sasso, Giuseppe, Rambaldi, Pierfrancesco, Sasso, Francesco S., Cuccurullo, Vincenzo, Murino, Paola, Puntieri, Paolo, Marsiglia, Hugo R., and Mansi, Luigi (2008) Scintigraphic evaluation of oesophageal transit during radiotherapy to the mediastinum. BMC Gastroenterology, 8. 51. pp. 1-11.

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Abstract

Background: To quantitatively evaluate radiation-induced impaired oesophageal transit with oesophageal transit scintigraphy and to assess the relationships between acute oesophagitis symptoms and dysmotility.

Methods: Between January 1996 and November 1998, 11 patients affected by non-small-cell carcinoma of the lung not directly involving the oesophagus, requiring adjuvant external beam radiotherapy (RT) to the mediastinum were enrolled. Oesophageal transit scans with liquid and semisolid bolus were performed at three pre-defined times: before (T0) and during radiation at 10 Gy (T1) and 30 Gy (T2). Two parameters were obtained for evaluation: 1) mean transit time (MTT); and 2) ratio between peak activity and residual activity at 40 seconds (ER-40s). Acute radiation toxicity was scored according to the joint EORTC-RTOG criteria. Mean values with standard deviation were calculated for all parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests and paired t-Tests for all values were performed.

Results: An increase in the ER-40s from T0 to T1 or T2 was seen in 9 of 11 patients (82%). The mean ER-40s value for all patients increased from 0.8306 (T0) to 0.8612 (T1) and 0.8658 (T2). These differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05) in two paired t-Tests at T0 versus T2 time: overall mean ER-40s and upright ER-40s (p = 0.041 and p = 0.032, respectively). Seven patients (63%) showed a slight increase in the mean MTT value during irradiation but no statistically significant differences in MTT parameters were found between T0, T1 and T2 (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Using oesophageal scintigraphy we were able to detect early alterations of oesophageal transit during the third week of thoracic RT.

Item ID: 25808
Item Type: Article (Research - C1)
ISSN: 1471-230X
Keywords: scintigraphic evaluation; oesphageal transit scans; external beam radiation
Additional Information:

© 2008 Sasso et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Date Deposited: 25 Mar 2013 05:35
FoR Codes: 11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1112 Oncology and Carcinogenesis > 111208 Radiation Therapy @ 100%
SEO Codes: 92 HEALTH > 9201 Clinical Health (Organs, Diseases and Abnormal Conditions) > 920102 Cancer and Related Disorders @ 100%
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