Submitted on March 24, 2005
Accepted on November 7, 2005
Mechanosensory properties in the human gastric antrum evaluated using B-mode ultrasonography during volume-controlled antral distension
H Gregersen1*, T Hausken2, J Yang3, S Odegaard2, and O H Gilja2
1 Center for Visceral Biomechanics and Pain, Aalborg Hospital and Center for Sensory-Motor interation, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark; National Center for Ultrasound in Gastroenterology, and Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
2 National Center for Ultrasound in Gastroenterology, and Department of Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
3 Center for Visceral Biomechanics and Pain, Aalborg Hospital and Center for Sensory-Motor interation, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: hag{at}smi.auc.dk.
The aims were to evaluate gastric antral mechanical behavior and distension-induced sensory-motor responses in the human gastric antrum using transabdominal ultrasound scanning. Ten healthy volunteers underwent volume-controlled ramp inflation of a bag located in the antrum with volumes up to 125 ml. The active and passive circumferential tensions and stresses were calculated from measurements of pressure, diameter and wall thickness before and during the administration of the anticholinergic drug butylscopolamine. The bag distensions elicited contractions in the antrum and sensory responses below the pain threshold. Butylscopolamine abolished the contractions and significantly reduced the sensory response. The length-tension diagram known from in vitro studies of smooth muscle strips could be reproduced as tension-volume diagrams in the human gastric antrum. The number of induced contractions and the contraction pressure amplitude (afterload) showed a parabolic behavior as function of the distension volume (preload) with maximum approximately at 70 ml. At the sensation threshold, the luminal circumference showed the lowest variation coefficient (13-25%) whereas the variation coefficient was more than 100% for the pressure, tensions and stresses. We conclude that the muscle length-tension diagram and typical preload-afterload curves ad modem the Frank-Starling cardiac law can be obtained in the human gastric antrum. The sensory responses were most closely associated to the luminal circumference, indicating that the sensation during antral distension depend on deformation rather than on tension.
