A Miniature Configurable Wireless System for Recording Gastric Electrophysiological Activity and Delivering High-Energy Electrical Stimulation

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a miniature system that can wirelessly acquire gastric electrical activity called slow waves, and deliver high energy electrical pulses to modulate its activity. The system is composed of a front-end unit, and an external stationary back-end unit that is connected to a computer. The front-end unit contains a recording module with three channels, and a single-channel stimulation module. Commercial off-the-shelf components were used to develop front- and back-end units. A graphical user interface was designed in LabVIEW to process and display the recorded data in real-time, and store the data for off-line analysis. The system was successfully validated on bench top and in vivo in porcine models. The bench-top studies showed an appropriate frequency response for analog conditioning and digitization resolution to acquire gastric slow waves. The system was able to deliver electrical pulses at amplitudes up to 10 mA to a load smaller than 880 Ω. Simultaneous acquisition of the slow waves from all three channels was demonstrated in vivo. The system was able to modulate –by either suppressing or entraining– the slow wave activity. This study reports the first high-energy stimulator that can be controlled wirelessly and integrated into a gastric bioelectrical activity monitoring system. The system can be used for treating functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Robotic Setup Promises Consistent Effects of Multilocular Gastrointestinal Electrical Stimulation: First Results of a Porcine Study

“…Furthermore, a first individual motility evaluation would take place in a more physiological environment. Together with recent advances in wireless GI device developments [33, 35, 36], even the scenario of robotic placement of multiple theranostic devices distributed along the GI tract appears reasonable.…”

Strategies to Refine Gastric Stimulation and Pacing Protocols: Experimental and Modeling Approaches

“…The first study to report such techniques was conducted in the isolated rabbit duodenum (see Figure 2A; Lammers et al, 1993). Similar techniques have been applied to pigs to investigate the effects of different pacing parameters (O'Grady et al, 2010b), to test the efficacy of new pacemaker designs (Wang et al, 2018;Alighaleh et al, 2019) and to assess acute slow wave response in patients undergoing Enterra stimulator implantation (Angeli et al, 2016). As Enterra Therapy uses high-frequency stimulation protocols, its mechanism of action is likely via nerves.…”

Use of Bioelectronics in the Gastrointestinal Tract

“…However, synchronizing the stimulation, especially high-energy stimulation, which results in motility, can potentially enhance contractions and result in accelerated transit in the stomach and intestine . Synchronized stimulation is the basis for closed-loop and smart modulation of the GI tract (Wang et al 2018).…”