Researchers have shown that ablation therapy, often used to correct an abnormally beating heart, could be used to correct disorders of the stomach such as ‘stomach dysrhythmias’. They outline the results of their work in AJP Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.
In normal circumstances the stomach is coordinated by underlying bioelectrical ‘slow wave’ activity, which coordinates the contraction of the muscles that mix and move contents into and through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. When these electrical slow waves don’t work as they should, described as ‘stomach dysrhythmias’, it can lead to severe GI disorders and symptoms of nausea, vomiting, pain and bloating, and is often untreatable.
When dysrhythmic activity occurs in the heart it results in atrial fibrillation, which is often treated with ablation therapy in which tissues are precisely ‘burnt’ to control the naturally occurring electricity in the heart. Dr Tim Angeli-Gordon and PhD student Zahra Aghababaie of the ABI have shown that the technique could also be applied to control the naturally occurring bioelectrical “slow wave” activity in the stomach.
With last year’s publication of the team’s initial research using ablation in the stomach, they demonstrated that it was possible to use the technique to block the electrical activation of the stomach in localised regions. “The more recent paper builds on that foundational work and is an important advance because we have now shown that we can eliminate abnormal electrical activation with ablation, and also that the normal electrical activation of the stomach can be restored after ablation,” said Dr Angeli-Gordon. “Although these studies were done in our pre-clinical lab, they demonstrate the powerful potential of ablation in the stomach which may now be able to be translated as a therapy for patients suffering from gastrointestinal disorders.”
Source: EurekAlert!
