Electrogastrography

Abstract

Electrical activity of the stomach is one determining factor of gastric motility by controlling and coordinating contractions of the gastric musculature. These contractions, both tonic and phasic, are responsible for the storing, mixing, and emptying of food. Gastric electrical activity is therefore a very important factor for normal stomach function. The development of a multi-channel, bandlimited, signal amplifier and recording system, provides a means to record this electrical activity. Many practical issues are addressed to provide a signal of acceptable quality and several basic signal processing techniques are applied to increase the quality of these signals and provide extraction of important information regarding power and frequency content. Gastric electrical activity is recorded from the stomachs of several rats in various experiments. The recorded activity in different regions of the stomach, responsible for different functions, is compared and evaluated with respect to known cellular events. By introducing several stimuli and observing changes in recorded activity, the nervous control of the stomach via mediation of the electrical activity is also examined and modeled briefly.