Abnormal gastric slow waves in patients with functional dyspepsia assessedby multichannel electrogastrography

The aim of this study was to utilize multichannel electrogastrography to in vestigate whether patients with functional dyspepsia had impaired propagati on or coordination of gastric slow waves in the fasting state compared with healthy controls. The study was performed in 10 patients with functional d yspepsia and 11 healthy subjects. Gastric myoelectrical activity was measur ed by using surface electrogastrography with a specially designed four-chan nel device. The study was performed for 30 min or more in the fasting state . Special computer programs were developed for the computation of the propa gation and coupling of the gastric slow wave. It was found that, compared w ith the healthy controls, the patients showed a significantly lower percent age of slow wave propagation (58.0 +/- 8.9 vs. 89.9 +/- 2.6%, P < 0.002) an d a significantly lower percentage of slow wave coupling (46.9 +/- 4.4 vs. 61.5 +/- 6.9%, P < 0.04). In addition, the patients showed inconsistencies in the frequency and regularity of the gastric slow wave among the four-cha nnel electrogastrograms (EGGs). It was concluded that patients with functio nal dyspepsia have impaired slow wave propagation and coupling. Multichanne l EGG has more information than single-channel EGG for the detection of gas tric myoelectrical abnormalities.