Pros and Cons of the SeHCAT Test in Bile Acid Diarrhea: A More Appropriate Use of an Old Nuclear Medicine Technique

Table 1

Advantages and disadvantages of the SeHCAT test for BAM.

Advantages	Disadvantages
Gold standard for the diagnosis of BAM with high sensitivity and specificity	Relatively expensive and usually available only at third-level centers
Simple, safe, and well tolerated	SeHCAT does not exclude other causes of organic diarrhea
Quantitative evaluation of BAM predicts the response to therapy with BASs	The optimal cutoff level for diagnosis is not yet completely agreed by all centers
More rational use of BASs in relation to possible side effects	Diagnosis of BAM could be empirically obtained with a BAS trial