Computer simulation of the impact of different dimensions of the stomach on the validity of electrogastrograms

The impact of the dimensions of the stomach on cutaneous recordings of gastric electrical activity (GEA) has not been adequately studied. The stomach was represented as a truncated conoid in a spherical coordinate system. The gastric electric field was modelled using a previously described methodology. Electrical potentials were calculated from sets of points simulating standard cutaneous recordings. The frequency of the signals was maintained at 3 cycles min-1 (period of repetition: 20 s), while the velocity of propagation of the depolarisation waves was reduced relative to the reduction in gastric dimensions. The signals were digitally contaminated with a random artificial artefact with a constant amplitude range of 0.2 mV, while the dimensions of the conoid (the circumferential radii and the length of the central axis) were decreased by factors of 1.5, two, four, six and eight. Simulated EGG signals were evaluated quantitatively. Simulated EGG records contaminated with random signals recorded from stomachs with decreasing dimensions exhibited non-linearly increasing standard deviations (p < 0.001). Randomly contaminated EGGs calculated from stomachs with dimensions reduced four, six and eight times were abnormal according to previously established quantitative criteria. Computer modelling indicated that gastric dimensions can significantly influence the validity of EGGs. These findings could be particularly important in a paediatric electrogastrography.