On-line spectral analysis of electrogastrographical signals

Abstract

The recording of human gastric myoelectrical activity by means of cutaneous electrodes attached on the abdominal skin, called electrogastrography (EGG), provides a noninvasive method of studying the electrogastric behavior. The normal frequency of the gastric signal is about 0.05 Hz. However, sudden changes of its frequency have been observed and are generally considered to be related to the gastric motility disorder. This suggests that spectral analysis could serve as a valuable tool for practical purposes. An autoregressive moving-average spectral method is presented. It is based on the adaptive IIR filter and therefore provides both time and frequency information of the signal. The method has been applied to the running spectral analysis of the cutaneous EGG signals. The spectral analysis of the postprandial EGGs is presented.<>