• The Journal of Internal Korean Medicine
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.276-283
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to report bowel sound patterns recorded in 3 diseases associated with structural deformity of the pylorus-duodenum. Methods: : Bowel sound recording is a useful non-invasive tool for the evaluation of gastrointestinal motility. However, the difficulty in manual attachment of the electronic stethoscope on the abdominal wall and noise production against bowel sound signals have prohibited its widespread use. Therefore, I developed a new apparatus that eliminates the noise; it contains a sound absorbing device and a holder for the head of stethoscope. Using the new bowel sound recording system, bowel sounds of the patients were recorded repeatedly. The endoscopic and abdominal computed tomography findings were obtained from other hospitals' medical record, and all patients were confirmed to have structural deformity in the pylorus-duodenum. The records of each patient were compared and assessed. Results: : Patients had either duodenal ulcer scar, pyloric stricture, or far advanced malignant stomach cancer, as diagnosed by the gastroscopy. Their dominant frequency of bowel sound obtained from the new system was checked more than 2 times at regular intervals. All 8 recordings in the 2 patients with duodenal ulcer scar (5 times) or pyloric stricture (3 times) showed a decrease in postprandial than fasting dominant frequency. One patient with stomach cancer showed no significant change between postprandial and fasting states at 2 recordings. Conclusions: The analysis of dominant frequency in bowel sounds can indicate the existence of pyloric obstruction that could delay gastric emptying.