Scintigraphic evaluation of abomasal emptying rate in neonatal suckling lambs

Evaluation of gastric emptying rate using nuclear scintigraphy as the gold standard method has been studied in various animals, but there is no report in suckling lambs. The aim of this study was to develop a nuclear scintigraphic method to visualize and measure abomasal emptying rate by estimation of scintigraphic half emptying time (T1/2) in the live neonatal lamb. Five healthy, female Iranian fat tailed Ghezel lambs, 7-10 days of age, were fasted at least 12 h and then fed with 1 mCi of 99mTc-DTPA added to 150 cc fresh ewe milk. Scintigraphic images were obtained in the standing position using a parallel hole, low-energy, triple head gamma camera. Images were stored digitally for 90 min and were analyzed using a nuclear medicine software program. The number of radionuclide counts from all three views during scintigraphic evaluations showed a time-dependent decrease in the number of radionuclide counts from the laterals (P