Gastric Emptying Essay

The Gastric Emptying Study is a procedure that measures the speed that food leaves your stomach . Some of the main symptoms of slow emptying are nausea , vomiting , and abdominal pain . Some symptoms of faster emptying are diarrhea , weakness or lightheadedness after eating . After ingesting the radioactive material in food the procedure is performed . The meal consists of a solid and a liquid . After the meal is ingested , the levels of radioactivity are monitored by a scanner that's put over the stomach . The more that the radioactivity decreases , the faster the food is leaving your stomach . Nuclear medicine is used to perform the gastric emptying study . A little radioactive material is used in the gastric emptying study to make photon
energy or radiation . Some types of radiation are gamma rays , beta particles , and alpha particles . The scanner and the different types of radiation help make a picture to track the radiation through the patient's body . To perform a radioactive tracer a radioactive isotope replaces a chemical element in an atom . An atom contains electrons , neutrons , and protons and is very small . The radioactive isotopes can be followed through the body using radiation detectors to study diseases . By the high morality of its radioactive decay , it can be used to explore the processes of the body while following the radioactive isotopes path .