Abstract 1285 Poster Session IV, Tuesday, 5/4 (poster 232)

Electrogastrography (EGG) has been established as a non-invasive technique for measuring gastric myoelectrical activity in children and adults. Aims: To establish pre and post-prandial gastric myoelectrical activity in healthy premature and full term neonates and to ascertain differences in gastric myoelectrical activity in response to breast milk and infant formula feedings. Methods: EGG recordings were obtained in 15 full term infants (gestational age at birth: M±SD 39 1.2 weeks, mean age 3.7 days) and 15 premature infants (gestational age at birth: M±SD 34.5 1.0 weeks; mean age 4.4 days)at initiation of enteral feedings. Six full term and two premature infants were fed human milk and the remaining infants were formula fed. The dominant frequency and power of the EGG signal as well as the percentage of bradygastria (0.5-2.4cpm), normal range (2.5-3.6cpm), and tachygastria (3.7-9.9cpm) were determined during two periods of 60 minutes, pre and post-prandially. Results: presented in table as M±SD. No significant differences in EGG power and frequencies were observed between pre and post-prandial periods. There were also no significant differences between EGG patterns from premature and full term infants and from infants fed breast milk and infant formula. Conclusions: Gastric myoelectrical activity in neonates is not influenced by gestational age or by the initiation of enteral feedings with breast milk or infant formula. Further EGG studies are needed in infants less than 32 weeks of gestation to assess the effect of extreme prematurity on gastric myoelectrical activity.

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