Authors: Armen A. Gharibans, Stefan Calder, Chris Varghese, Stephen Waite, Gabriel Schamberg, Charlotte Daker, Peng Du, Saeed Alighaleh, Daniel Carson, Jonathan Woodhead, Gianrico Farrugia, John A. Windsor, Christopher N. Andrews, Greg O’Grady
Published: 2022-09-21
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abq3544
Source: Full article
Chronic nausea and vomiting syndromes (NVSs) are prevalent and debilitating disorders. Putative mechanisms include gastric neuromuscular disease and dysregulation of brain-gut interaction, but clinical tests for objectively defining gastric motor function are lacking. A medical device enabling noninvasive body surface gastric mapping (BSGM) was developed and applied to evaluate NVS pathophysiology. BSGM was performed in 43 patients with NVS and 43 matched controls using Gastric Alimetry (Alimetry), a conformable high-resolution array (8 × 8 electrodes; 20-mm interelectrode spacing), wearable reader, and validated symptom-logging app. Continuous measurement encompassed a fasting baseline (30 minutes), 482-kilocalorie meal, and 4-hour postprandial recording, followed by spectral and spatial biomarker analyses. Meal responses were impaired in NVS, with reduced amplitudes compared to controls (median, 23.3 microvolts versus 38.0 microvolts,