Electrogastrography in neonates.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Procedures for diagnosis of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms in newborn and preterm infants should preferably be non-invasive. This study evaluates the usability of electrogastrography (EGG), a non-invasive, cutaneous recording of the gastric myoelectrical activity in newborn infants.

METHOD

Sixty-two randomly selected infants [27 girls and 35 boys with median gestational age of 36 weeks (range 29-42)] divided into six groups (by postconceptional age) were studied on median day 5 (range 1-24) after birth. None had GI symptoms. EGG recordings were made by Digitrapper EGG recording system.

RESULTS

Findings were highly dispersed and without statistical difference both between pre- and postprandial periods and among the six study groups. Dominant frequency of 2.5 cycles per minute was found for 57 of 62 infants, with distribution of normal, bradygastric and tachygastric slow wave frequency uniformly dispersed around 50, 35 and 15% respectively.

CONCLUSION

We find EGG unsuitable for clinical use because of significant variation in gastric slow wave frequency in normal term and preterm infants without GI symptoms.