Electrogastrography: measurement, analysis and prospective applications

Electrogastrography (EGG), the cutaneous recording of the myoelectrical activity of the stomach using surface electrodes, is attractive due to its noninvasiveness and its correlation with gastric motility. Since the first measurement of the EGG, a great deal of research effort has been expended on investigating its relationship with specific activities of the stomach in question. In this review, we discuss how to measure the EGG, what information is available in the EGG, how to extract useful information from the EGG and the prospective applications of the EGG. After a brief historic evolution of the EGG, we first discuss the measurement of the EGG, the importance of localisation of the stomach and the characteristics of the EGG. The most commonly used EGG data-analysis methods, both power spectral analysis and waveform analysis, are then outlined. Some of prospective applications of the EGG in clinical diagnosis and medical research are described, mainly concerning the correlation between EGG amplitude and gastric motility and that between EGG rhythmic variations and motility disorders. Specifically, we present studies on pre- and postprandial EGGs, observation of the propagation direction of the gastric slow wave and gastric electrical dysrhythmias and their correlation with gastric motility.