EWOFS 2010

Measurement of the longitudinal and circumferential muscular activity associated with peristalsis using a single fibre grating array

J. W. Arkwright, N. G. Blenman, I. D. Underhill, S. A. Maunder, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (Australia); N. J. Spencer, M. Costa, S. J. Brooks, Flinders University (Australia); M. M. Szczesniak, P. G. Dinning, University of New South Wales (Australia)

Diagnostic catheters based on fibre Bragg gratings (FBG’s) are proving to be highly effective for measurement of the muscular activity associated with peristalsis in the human gut. The primary muscular contractions that generate peristalsis are circumferential in nature; however, it has long been known that there is also a component of longitudinal contractility present, acting in harmony with the circumferential component to improve the overall efficiency of material movement. To date, there have been relatively few reports on the measurement or inference of longitudinal contractions in humans and all have been limited to detection at a single location only. This is due to the lack of a viable recording technique suitable for real-time in-vivo measurement of this type of activity over extended lengths of the gut. We report the detection of longitudinal motion in lengths of excised mammalian colon using an FBG technique that should be viable for similar detection in humans. The longitudinal sensors have been combined with our previously reported FBG pressure sensing elements to form a composite catheter that allows the relative phase between the two components to be detected. The catheter output has been validated using digital video mapping in an ex-vivo animal preparation using lengths of rabbit ileum.

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