Gastric motility disorders and the role of electrogastrography

Abstract

Abnormal gastric motility occurs in many pediatric gastrointestinal organic diseases but also functional disorders. Gastrointestinal motility results from complex interaction od muscles, myenteric plexus, peripheral nervous system, and brain. Gastric contractions are a consequence of gastric myoelectrical activity. Gastric motility aberrations can be assessed with electrogastrography (EGG), a noninvasive technique that records gastric myoelectrical activity. In this article we review the common pediatric gastric motility disorders, indications for the use of EGG and its clinical importance.The EGG changes do not have a disease-specific pattern but a pathological finding indicates that gastric motility abnormality is part of the pathomechanism of some of the gastrointestinal disorders. More studies have shown that gastric dysmotility is part of the pathomechanism of functional dyspepsia, as well as that pathological EGG is found in other functional disorders, but also in gastroesophageal reflux disease, cyclic vomiting syndrome, cystic fibrosis etc. The disadvantage of the method is its low specificity. Most of the EGG studies used different methodology so new standardized studies in children are needed to establish its clinical significance.

Keywords

• gastrointestinal motility – physiology; stomach – physiology
• physiopathology; gastric emptying – physiology; stomach diseases – physiopatthology; electromyography – methods; diagnostic techniques