One example of a gastric emptying study is an operation that is done by nuclear medicine physicians using radioactive chemicals that examines how fast the food leaves the stomach and goes to the small intestine. Gastric emptying studies are used for checking patients who are experiencing signs of slow and, less commonly, rapid emptying of the stomach. Some signs to watch for are low energy levels, nausea, and heartburn. During a gastric emptying study, the patient eats a meal where the food in the meal and the drink in the meal are combined with a little radioactive material. Then a scanner is put over the person’s stomach to watch the radioactivity in the stomach for a few hours after the test meal has been eaten. When the food leaves the
