[Multichannel electrogastrography in pediatrics - progress in standardisation and clinical application].

Electrogastrography (EGG) is a non-invasive method to record gastric myoelectrical activity by means of electrodes placed on the abdominal surface. This technique allows to obtain information about gastric myoelectrical activity and indirectly about gastric motility, without affecting its physiological functions. Except traditional parameters of single channel EGG such as: dominant frequency and power, instability coefficient of dominant frequency and power, percentage of normo-, brady- and tachygastry, the multichannel electrogastrography allows for estimation and registration of the slow waves coupling and propagation as well as to improve detection of abnormalities in gastric myoelectrical activity. Many agents connected with signal detection and analysis, test meal and normative values affect the final result of EGG recording. The trials defining normative data for healthy children and optimal composition of the test meal are conducted. It seems that the establishment of standard protocol of EGG is essential. EGG in children is useful in variety of functional gastrointestinal disorders, as well as gastroesophageal reflux disease and some organic disorders e.g. diabetes mellitus. Some of these diseases are connected with gastric myoelectrical activity abnormalities but others are not easily associable with them and as such are in need of additional investigations. Despite of a rapid development of electrogastrography difficulties in finding correlations between disturbances in myoelectric stomach function and gastric motility, impaired gastric emptying and symptoms of particular disease still remain. On the other hand a normal EGG does not exclude the disease.