Gastric myoelectrical activity in healthy children and children with functional dyspepsia

The aim of this study was to investigate abnormalities in pediatric patients with functional dyspepsia. Fifteen symptomatic pediatric patients diagnosed with functional dyspepsia and 17 aged-matched healthy controls were studied. Gastric myoelectrical activity was recorded using surface electrogastrography for 1 hr in the fasting state and 1 hr after a test meal. It was found that, in comparison with the controls, the children with functional dyspepsia had a lower percentage of 2- to 4-cpm slow waves in both fasting state (66.0 +/- 4.7% vs 79.7 +/- 3.1%, P < 0.07) and fed state (72.4 +/- 5.4% vs 85.0 +/- 2.9%, P < 0.04), and a significantly higher instability of the dominant frequency in both fasting state (0.50 +/- 0.05 vs 0.31 +/- 0.04, P < 0.01) and fed state (0.39 +/- 0.05 vs 0.25 +/- 0.03, P < 0.05). It was also found the postprandial increase in EGG dominant power in the patients was inversely correlated with the total symptom score (r = 0.63, P = 0.03). It was concluded that abnormal gastric myoelectrical activity may play a role in the pathogenesis of pediatric functional dyspepsia.