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Body Surface Colonic Mapping Detects Meal and Bisacodyl-Induced Colonic Motility in Patients With Chronic
Annelies Verheyden1, Phil G Dinning2, Greg O'Grady3
1Department of Chronic Diseases, Metabolism and Ageing, Translational Research Centre for Gastrointestinal Disorders (TARGID), Leuven, Belgium.
The American Journal of Gastroenterology
|May 11, 2026
Summary
Body Surface Colonic Mapping (BSCM) offers a non-invasive alternative to high-resolution colonic manometry (HRM) for evaluating chronic constipation. This technique accurately detects colonic motility changes, correlating well with HRM results.
Area of Science:
- Gastroenterology
- Physiology
- Medical Technology
Background:
- Chronic constipation affects many, with refractory cases posing management challenges.
- High-resolution colonic manometry (HRM) is invasive and resource-intensive for diagnosing motor dysfunction.
- There is a need for non-invasive methods to assess colonic motility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To validate Body Surface Colonic Mapping (BSCM) as a non-invasive clinical alternative to HRM.
- To assess BSCM's ability to detect colonic motor patterns.
- To explore symptom-motility associations in refractory constipation.
Main Methods:
- Simultaneous HRM and BSCM recordings in 10 patients with refractory chronic constipation.
- Motility assessment during meal and bisacodyl challenges.
- Optimized BSCM signal processing for detecting high-amplitude propagating contractions (HAPCs).
Main Results:
- BSCM motility indices strongly correlated with HRM for meal (r=0.86) and bisacodyl (r=0.69) responses.
- Concordant classification between BSCM and HRM in 87.5% of cases.
- BSCM identified patient-specific symptom-motility associations.
Conclusions:
- BSCM accurately detects induced colonic motility increases with high fidelity to HRM.
- BSCM shows potential for larger studies to guide personalized management of refractory chronic constipation.
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