Assessment of gastric retention time through a magnetic indigestible particle: Preliminary results

In this work the gastrointestinal activity in 7 healthy subjects was measured with a set of three fluxgate magnetometers. The activity was detected by the ingestion of a magnetic marker, which was ingested with different gastric lumen contents (in basal condition and postprandial state with 80 g and 160 g). A descriptive statistical analysis of the gastric emptying measured performed in the Fourier space shows significant variations of the mechanical activity: 100 ± 34%, 171 ± 86%, and 237 ± 71% for each condition, respectively. This information suggests the different regions where the marker was monitored. With the information of the dominant frequency peaks and an exponential fit, the gastric half-time could be estimated.