Gastric myoelectrical activity in patients with cervical spinal cord injury

Objective: Dyspeptic symptoms are common in patients with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). The supraspinal control of sympathetic innervation to the stomach is interrupted in these patients. Gastric emptying has been reported to be delayed in some patients with cervical SCI. Gastric myoelectrical activity is known to regulate gastric motility and is correlated with gastric emptying. The change in gastric myoelectrical activity after cervical SCI is unknown; our aim was to investigate it. Methods: The study was performed in 12 cervical SCI patients and 14 healthy controls. Gastric myoelectrical activity was recorded using surface electrogastrography for 30 min in the fasting state and 1 h after a standard test meal. Spectral analysis was performed to compute the following parameters from the electrogastrogram; investigated were the percentage of 2–4 cycles/min (cpm) slow waves, the instability coefficient (IC) of the dominant frequency, the postprandial increment of dominant frequency (δF), and its power (δP). Results: In both fasting and fed states, regular and stable gastric slow waves were observed in both the control group and patients with cervical SCI. The percentage of normal 2–4 cpm slow waves (preprandial, 80.7 ± 3.6% vs 91.5 ± 3.7%, p > 0.05; postprandial, 82.0 ± 4.4% vs 87.2 ± 4.2%, p > 0.05) and IC (preprandial, 0.19 ± 0.04% vs 0.28 ± 0.05%; postprandial, 0.24 ± 0.04% vs 0.27 ± 0.02%, p > 0.05) were not significantly different between the two groups. The dominant frequency and its power were also similar between the two groups, no matter whether in the fast (frequency, 2.92 ± 0.3 vs 2.93 ± 0.06 cpm; power, 30.05 ± 1.29 vs 29.08 ± 1.23 dB, p > 0.05) or fed (frequency, 3.17 ± 0.07 vs 3.02 ± 0.06 cpm; power, 32.55 ± 0.90 vs 32.07 ± 1.18 dB, p > 0.05) state. The postprandial response measured by δF (0.25 ± 0.09 vs 0.09 ± 0.07 cpm, p > 0.05) and δP (2.52 ± 1.10 vs 2.24 ± 1.20 dB, p > 0.05) were also similar between the two groups. Conclusion: Gastric myoelectrical activity was not altered after cervical SCI.