Gastrointestinal Motility Study in Human

Abstract

Gastrointestinal motility study is now enabled to use a variety of techniques including the more advanced technology. Gastrointestinal motor function can be assessed by measurement of the gastroduodenal wall motion, relaxation, contraction and the change in myoelectrical activity. Besides ultrasonography, radioisotopic breath test and magnetic resonance imaging, scintigraphy is the gold standard for measurement of the gastric emptying (gastric wall motion), due to its accuracy, ease of quantification, reasonable cost and noninvasiveness. While barostat is the only method for assessing proximal gastric relaxation, manometry is the method to evaluate the lumen occlusive contraction of the tubular gut. Impedancometry is a new technique that may be more sensitive than manometry in providing the information on gastroduodenal motor function alterations, including the flow events along the gut lumen.