Cholecystokinin hepatobiliary (CCK-HIDA) scintigraphy is used to triage patients with chronic abdominal pain and suspected gall-bladder dysfunction. This study evaluates the predictive value of CCK-HIDA for clinical outcome after surgical and medical therapy. Fifty-six patients (45 females), mean age 43 +/- 9 years, with otherwise normal investigations, including normal ultrasound, fasted for more than 8h and then had 70MBq technetium-99m-EHIDA injected. One and a half hours later 15 ng/kg CCK was infused over 45 min. Seventy minutes dynamic imaging commenced 5 min prior to infusion. An abnormal gall-bladder ejection fraction (GBEF) was defined as < 50%. Patients were treated medically, or by cholecystectomy, depending on the surgeon's overall assessment, including results of the CCK-HIDA study. Patient status was then obtained in 51/56 patients at least 3 months after the scan or at least 1 month after surgery. All surgical specimens were reviewed independently for pathological changes of chronic acalculous cholecystitis. Of the 11 patients with an abnormal gall-bladder ejection fraction, nine (82%) underwent cholecystectomy, all of whom achieved total symptomatic cure, while two patients underwent other therapy, both of whom remained symptomatically unchanged. Of the 40 patients whose gall-bladder ejection fraction was normal, only five (12.5%) underwent cholecystectomy, of whom four were cured and one partially improved at follow up. Of the 35 patients with a normal gall-bladder ejection fraction and who underwent forms of therapy other than cholecystectomy, nine were cured symptomatically, 13 improved, 10 remained unchanged and three were symptomatically worse at follow up.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)