Non-invasive monitoring of gastric motility in humans

Abstract

Stomach is an organ of gastrointestinal system where the food coming from the mouth through the esophagus is mixed by the rhythmic contractions of the smooth muscles, with acid and other gastric secretions. The control of motility of the stomach is performed by neuronal and hormonal factors that modulate the smooth muscles in generating muscular contractions. Electrogastrography is a procedure for recording gastric myoelectrical activity either invasively by placing electrodes on serosal lining of the stomach or non-invasively by using electrodes located on the skin of the abdomen. Compared with the development of other surface electrophysiological measurements, such as Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Electroencephalogram (EEG), the progress of the EGG has been very slow. The main problems include: (1) difficulty in data acquisition and analysis because of the low signal-to-noise ratio of the EGG; (2) difficulty in interpreting EGG data and extracting useful and relevant information from the EGG; and (3) lack of understanding of the correlation between the EGG and gastric motility. Today, numerous clinical and animal studies are being carried out by using EGG in order to have reliable, scientific data which can help the interpretation of the findings. The frequency of gastric contractions is controlled by the gastric slow wave, which is around 3 cycles per minute (cpm) and the appearance of gastric contractions is associated with spike activities. Today, conventional EGG devices are collecting data related with the lower frequency signals but it was shown on the animal models that higher frequency signals observed during peristaltic contractions can also be detected and quantified from EGG recordings by using a suitable method and perhaps, the patterns of this high frequency components can be correlated with the pathological processes related with the stomach. Our main interest arises on the collection and interpretation of the high frequency peristaltic contractions signals in humans using EGG.