Gastrointestinal motility during sleep assessed by tracking of telemetric capsules combined with polysomnography – a pilot study

Abstract

Anne-Mette Haase,1 Sibylle Fallet,2 Marit Otto,3 S Mark Scott,4 Vincent Schlageter,5 Klaus Krogh1 1Department of Hepatology and Gastroenterology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark; 2Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; 3Department of Neurophysiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark; 4Neurogastroenterology Group, Gastrointestinal Physiology Unit, Queen Mary University, London, UK; 5Motilis Medica SA, Lausanne, Switzerland Abstract: Studies of gastrointestinal function during sleep are hampered by lack of applicable techniques. Recent development of a novel ambulatory telemetric capsule system, which can be used in conjunction with polysomnography, offers a solution to this problem. The 3D-Transit system consists of ingestible electromagnetic capsules traceable through a portable extracorporeal receiver while traversing the gut. During sleep monitored by polysomnography, gastrointestinal motility was concurrently investigated using 3D-Transit in nine healthy subjects. Overall, the amplitude of gastric contractions decreased with depth of sleep (light sleep, N2 versus deep sleep, N3; P<0.05). Progression through the small intestine did not change with depth of sleep (Kruskal–Wallis probability =0.1), and there was no association between nocturnal awakenings or arousals and the occurrence of colonic or small intestinal propagating movements. Basal colonic activity was suppressed during both deep sleep (P<0.05) and light sleep (P<0.05) when compared with nocturnal wake periods. In conclusion, the novel ambulatory 3D-Transit system combined with polysomnography allows minimally invasive and completely ambulatory investigation of associations between sleep patterns and gastrointestinal motility. Keywords: colonic movement, gastric contractions, sleep assessment, ingestible capsule, circadian motility, sleep stage

Keywords

• colonic movement
• gastric contractions
• gastrointestinal motility
• ingestible capsule
• polysomnography
• sleep