GASTRIC-EMPTYING PATTERNS OF A LIQUID MEAL IN NEWBORN-INFANTS MEASURED BY EPIGASTRIC IMPEDANCE

Epigastric impedance was used to measure the gastric emptying patterns of a Liquid non-caloric meal (5 mt water kg(-1)) in 30 healthy newbor n infants. Twenty-six mature infants were examined in the first eight days of life, and four preterm infants were examined within 6 weeks af ter birth. The recordings consisted of two components: the emptying si gnal (the DC component), and a phasic 3 cycles per minutes (CPM) signa l (the AC component). In some of the infants the phasic 3 CPM signal w as also seen during the fasting state. For mature infants the median h alf emptying time (T-50) was 6.9 min. For a second meal given within o ne hour after the first meal the half emptying time was 5.5 min (P < 0 .01). In preterm infants the emptying times were not significantly dif ferent from mature infants. Day-to-day Variation was low with a coeffi cient of variation of 17% in nine infants. A periodic change of the im pedance signal, the phasic 3 CPM signal, was observed after a meal in 24 of the infants. The median frequency was 3.0 CPM in 20 mature and 2 .9 CPM in four preterm infants. In nine infants a phasic 3 CPM signal was also observed during the fasting state, with a median frequency of 2.9 CPM. Measurement of gastric emptying pattern with epigastric impe dance is a simple investigation for the evaluation of gastric emptying time and phasic activity in mature and preterm infants. However, the method is sensitive to spontaneous movements of the children, resultin g in non-valid measurements in around one fourth of the infants.