Electrocolonography: Non-Invasive detecton of colonic cyclic motor activity from multielectrode body surface recordings*

Approximately 20% of Americans suffer from colonic motility disorders, including slow transit constipation (STC) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), with significant physical and social morbidity. Accurate clinical diagnosis is often challenging due to the non-specificity of symptoms. In addition, the only direct assessment tool available in current clinical practice is colonic manometry, which involves placing a small, flexible tube, or catheter, through the rectum and into the colon. There is a substantial need in both colon research and clinical practice for an accurate, non-invasive method to analyze colon motor activity. This work validates a novel non-invasive method to identify periods of cyclic motor activity in the colon using multichannel skin-surface electrical recordings on the lower abdominal region, termed electrocolonography (EColG). We also explore several spatial filtering techniques to identify wave propogation of the colon.