Distension-induced myoelectrical dysrhythmia and effect of intestinal pacing in dogs

The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of duodenal distensio n on intestinal myoelectrical activity and to investigate whether intestina l pacing was able to reverse the effects of distension. Six female hound do gs with four pairs of electrodes on the proximal jejunum were involved in t his study. The protocol consisted of 30 min of recording of jejunal myoelec trical activity as baseline and 90 min of recording during distension. Inte stinal pacing was performed during the second 30 min of distension. Duodena l distension severely impaired intestinal myoelectrical activity. The perce ntage of normal slow waves was reduced from 90.8 +/- 8.4% at baseline to 73 .8 +/- 10.2%, 57.2 +/- 11.4%, and 53.7 +/- 16.0% during the first, second a nd third 30 min of distension (P < 0.05, ANOVA). The dominant power was sim ilarly decreased and the minute-by-minute variation of dominant frequency w as significantly increased after distension. Intestinal pacing reversed dis tension-induced dysrhythmia. The percentage of normal slow waves during the 30 min of distension with pacing was significantly higher than the corresp onding 30 min of distension without pacing (88.5 +/- 6.6% vs 57.2 +/- 11.4% , P < 0.03). It was concluded that intestinal pacing can normalize distensi on-induced dysrhythmia and has a potential as a future therapeutic modality for intestinal motor disorders.