A Framework for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Gastrointestinal Spike Burst Propagation

Gastrointestinal spike bursts are a bioelectrical phenomenon associated with motility. These events when initiated propagate a small distance and abruptly terminate activating a small area defined as a patch. Understanding normal and abnormal propagation patterns of these events may shed light on the root causes of functional motility disorders. This study develops an automated framework for spatiotemporal analysis of spike bursts. High-resolution electrical signals were obtained from the pig intestine, after which intestinal spike bursts were identified and clustered into their propagating wavefronts. Propagation velocity was estimated by fitting a polynomial surface to the activation times. The fit was able to estimate the velocity of spike burst patches covering at least six channels with an average RMSE of 0.4 s. Propagation within patches was visualized by plotting the fit as activation maps and velocity maps. Average velocities were calculated to compare the propagation characteristics of different types of patches. In the future, this framework will be extended to generate amplitude maps and spike burst duration maps. These tools can be used to analyze spike patch propagation and their relationship to motility.