Amit Ailiani1, Thomas Neuberger2, Gino Banco3, James Brasseur3, Nadine Smith1, Andrew Webb4
1Bioengineering, Penn State University, University Park, PA, USA; 2Huck Institute, Penn State University, USA; 3Mechanical Engineering, Penn State University; 4Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands
Dynamic MRI and spatiotemporal analysis were used to characterize the differences in gut motility caused by isoflurane and inactin anesthesisa. Both give rise to peristalsis with a single frequency component, and segmental motions with two different frequency components. However, the periods of inactivity between gut motions is much longer for isoflurane than inactin, and the speed of propagation is twice as high for inactin as it is for isoflurane. These direct observations confirm previous indirectly measured parameters, and provide a platform for completely non-invasive assessment of gut motility using different anesthetic agents.