Osteopathic Manipulative Techniques Alter Gastric Myoelectrical Activity in Healthy Subjects

INTRODUCTION: Osteopathic Manipulative Techniques (OMT) have been shown to alter autonomic control of heart rate. However, it is unclear if OMT affects control of gastric myoelectrical activity (GMA). HYPOTHESIS: We hypothesized that OMT significantly alters power spectral density (PSD) analyses of electrogastrography (EGG) recordings compared with sham OMT. METHODS: IRB approval was obtained for this protocol. Subjects were studied before and after sham treatment and OMT (both vagal and sympathetic directed techniques) on separate days in a cross-over design. 15 minute EGG recordings were obtained before and after each intervention and after a water challenge (WC; a standard vagal stimulus of GMA). The WC involved drinking 500 mL of 16 οC water over 5 min. Percent power in the normogastric range (PPN; 2-4 counts/min) was estimated from PSD analyses of EGG recordings. Absolute percent change of PPN (∆PPN) from baseline to post-intervention and baseline to post-WC was computed and compared using paired t-tests and two-way repeated-measures ANOVA. RESULTS: OMT significantly altered ∆PPN versus sham control (sham: 5.3%, OMT: 24.5%, P=0.015). WC significantly altered ∆PPN compared to sham control (post-sham ∆PPN: 5.3%, post-drink ∆PPN: 30.3%, P CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that (a) OMT significantly alters GMA compared to sham control and (b) that OMT produces similar changes in GMA to WC.