Human gastric pacesetter potential. Site of origin, spread, and response to gastric transection and proximal gastric vagotomy.

Gastric electrical activity was recorded from twenty-six patients at celiotomy. The human gastric pacemaker was localized to an area in the midcorpus along the greater curve. Pacesetter potentials were generated regularly by the pacemaker at a mean frequency of 3.2 cycles/min and were propagated circumferentially and aborally from the pacemaker, increasing in amplitude and velocity as they approach the pylorus. The pattern of pacesetter potenitals in patients with gastric ulcer, gastric cancer, and duodenal ulcer was similar to that of patients without such diseases. Complete transection of the gastric corpus isolated the distal stomach from the natural pacemaker and resulted in the appearance of a new pacemaker in the distal stomach with a slower frequency. The fact that proximal gastric vagotomy did not greatly alter the frequency of generation or the pattern of propagation of the pacesetter potential provided further evidence that both are myogenic phenomena.