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CAVEAT LECTOR
ELECTROSIGMOIDOGRAM IN THE VARIOUS PATHOLOGIC CONDITIONS OF THE SIGMOID COLON
Department of Surgery and Experimental Research, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.
Received 7/22/98 Accepted 8/20/98
3. MATERIAL AND METHODS
3.1. Subjects
The study was comprised of 60 subjects: 15 patients with ulcerative colitis, 12 with diverticulitis, 8 with sigmoid familial polyposis, 9 sigmoid cancer patients, 6 patients with sigmoidectomy for sigmoid cancer and 10 healthy volunteers as controls.
Table 1 depicts the clinical data of the 60 subjects. The diagnosis of the patients had been based on radiologic and endoscopic investigations. An informed consent was obtained from each subject, and the study was approved by our Faculty Review Board and Ethical Committee. All the sigmoid cancer patients were of the Duke's C stage.
Table 1. Clinical data of the 60 studied subjects.
|
Condition |
No. |
Mean age |
Sex |
Mean duration of symptoms |
||
|
(years) |
M |
F |
(months) |
|||
|
Healthy volunteers |
10 |
46.3 ± 8.5 |
7 |
3 |
- |
|
|
Ulcerative colitis |
15 |
38.6 ± 6.8 |
8 |
7 |
96.2 ± 21.3 |
|
|
Diverticulitis |
12 |
61.3 ± 4.2 |
7 |
5 |
86.4 ± 18.2 |
|
|
Sigmoid polyposis |
8 |
21.3 ± 2.3 |
4 |
4 |
52.2 ± 6.2 |
|
|
Sigmoid cancer |
9* |
53.2 ± 8.8 |
6 |
3 |
7.3 ± 2.1 |
|
|
Sigmoidectomy |
6 |
50.3 ± 7.7 |
6 |
- |
5.2 ± 2.8 | |
* All patients were Duke's C stage.
3.2. Methods
The technique of transcutaneous electrosigmoidography has been previously described (20). Briefly, with the bowel and urinary bladder empty, the subject was placed in a supine position and 3 silver-silver chloride electrodes (Smith Kline-Beckman, Los Angeles, CA, USA) were fixed to the abdominal skin by an electrode gel (Johnson & Johnson, Warren, NJ; figure 1). One electrode was applied 2-3 cm from each side of the middle of a line drawn from the umbilicus to the symphysis pubis. A third electrode was placed just above the symphysis pubis, and a reference electrode was applied to one of the lower limbs. The signals were recorded on paper (Van Gogh EP 8b, Disa, Copenhagen) and stored on a magnetic tape (Recall Store 14, Disa, Copenhagen). High and low pass filters (6 decibel / octane) were set at 0.01 and 0.5 Hz, respectively. At least two 30-minute recording sessions were performed for each subject on different days.
Figure. 1. The sites of the electrodes
3.3. Statistics
The results were analyzed statistically using the Student’s t-test. Differences assumed statistical significance at p<0.05 and values were given as mean ± standard deviation (SD).