Abstract
This paper presents novel minimally-invasive, catheter-based acoustic interrogation device for monitoring motility dynamics of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES). A micro-oscillator actively emitting sound wave at 16 kHz is located at one side of the LES, and a miniature microphone is located at the other side of the sphincter to capture the sound generated from the oscillator. Thus, the dynamics of the opening and closing of the LES can be quantitatively assessed. In this paper, experiments are conducted utilizing an LES motility dynamics simulator. The sound strength is captured by the microphone and is correlated to the level of LES opening and closing controlled by the simulator. Measurements from the simulator model show statistically significant (p < 0.05) Pearson correlation coefficients (0.905 on the average in quiet environment and 0.736 on the average in noisy environment, D.O.F. = 9). Measuring the level of LES opening and closing has the potential to become a valuable diagnostic technique for understanding LES dysfunction and the disorders associated with it.
Highlights
Lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is located between the esophagus and the stomach
In order to study the relationship between the degree of the lower esophageal sphincter (LES) opening and the strength of the sound recorded by the microphone, eleven groups of data were collected in a quiet environment and another eleven groups of data were collected in a noisy environment using the LES motility dynamics simulator model
The sound wave strength detected by the microphone decreased approximately by an order of 2 when the level of LES opening changed from 100% to 0%
Summary
Lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is located between the esophagus and the stomach. The LES acts principally as a barrier against reflux of gastric content into the esophagus, while allowing antegrade passage of esophageal content into the stomach. One of the primary malfunctions in LES is the phenomenon of transient inappropriate relaxations of the sphincter, resulting in permissive conditions for the content of the stomach to reflux into the esophagus resulting in various esophageal symptoms and mucosal damage. Existing methods for monitoring LES-related disorders include pH measurements, impedance monitoring, endoscopy, and esophageal manometry, as well as ultrasonic and sonic techniques [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. None of these can directly assess the opening and the closing of the LES [19]
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