Acoustic and Intraluminal Ultrasonic Technologies in the Diagnosis of Diseases in Gastrointestinal Tract: A Review

Abstract

Gastrointestinal (GI) auscultation (listening to sounds from stomach and bowel) has been applied for abdominal physical assessment for many years. This article evaluates the technique involved in listening to both bowel and stomach sounds and the significance of both normal and abnormal GI auscultation findings. Moreover, intraluminal ultrasonic techniques have been widely used for gastrointestinal disease diagnosis by providing intraluminal images since 1980s, this article also reviews the existing intraluminal ultrasonic technology for diagnosing of GI disorders

Practicing Digital Gastroenterology through Phonoenterography Leveraging Artificial Intelligence: Future Perspectives Using Microwave Systems

“…Auscultation of bowel sounds has been in practice since the time of Hippocrates [ 12 ]. This ancient practice was later studied by multiple researchers but had limited usability due to interference of surrounding medium air, with long duration of recordings ultimately leading to erroneous results [ 71 , 87 , 88 , 89 , 91 , 92 , 97 ]. Subsequently, the use of procedures such as endoscopy, colonoscopy and manometry increased and are widely employed today.…”

“…Although studies [ 58 ] show inter-physician agreement in categorizing auscultated bowel sounds into normal and pathological, it cannot be applied clinically due to physician inconvenience. Eventually, all the conventional recording technologies were proved insignificant [ 97 ] due to dependence on the operator’s knowledge, interruptions by the surrounding air, need for longer supervision, and poor detection of low amplitude bowel sounds. Bowel sound auscultation was digitally revolutionized with the development of computerized bowel sound detectors coupled to microphone-based sensors.…”

Biomarkers for knee osteoarthritis: new technologies, new paradigms

“…In recent years there has been increasing interest in translational applications of acoustic science to inform the diagnosis and management of several different health [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39] and dental conditions [40,41]. In this context, the development of techniques to measure highfrequency AE in knee joints [16][17][18][19] offers the potential to develop a biomarker reflecting the integrity of interactions between knee joint components during weightbearing movement.…”

Catheter-based acoustic interrogation device for real-time monitoring of the dynamics of the lower esophageal sphincter:in vitroand pilot canine studies

“…Intraluminal ultrasonic techniques have been used for GERD diagnosis by providing intraluminal images since the 1980s, although this methodology has not found its way into routine clinical practice (Hisanaga et al 1980, Dimagno et al 1982, Lu et al 2013. The cross-sectional structure of the esophageal lumen during liquid swallows and liquid gastroesophageal reflux (GERD) can be measured by a probe carrying a circumferential array of extremely small ultrasonic sensors on a single site of an intraluminal catheter to inspect visually the crosssectional image of the esophagus at a specific level (Gao et al 2012).…”