GASTRIC-MUCOSAL HEMODYNAMICS AFTER THERMAL OR HEAD-INJURY - A CLINICAL-APPLICATION OF REFLECTANCE SPECTROPHOTOMETRY

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  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 83  (3) , 535-540
Abstract
In order to elucidate the role of mucosal blood flow in stress ulceration in critically ill patients with thermal or head injury, reflectance spectrophotometry was applied to the human gastric mucosa. During gastrofiberscopy, the spectra of the corpus and antral gastric mucosa were taken using a flexible coaxial optic bundle and a computer-equipped spectrophotometer. The subjects were 27 patients with thermal or head injury and were compared with 8 young healthy volunteers and 9 age-matched patients who had GI [gastrointestinal] symptoms but showed no gastric lesion endoscopically. In 8 patients whose gastric mucosal blood volume at the time of admission decreased to .apprx. 27% of the level of young healthy volunteers or 36% of that of age-matched controls, the acute gastric mucosal lesions appeared in the corpus mucosa mostly within a few days after the measurement of mucosal blood volume. In contrast, in cases with thermal or head injury and without acute gastric mucosal lesions, the mucosal blood volume did not decrease significantly as compared with that of the young healthy volunteers and age-matched controls. Analysis of mucosal blood volume by reflectance spectrophotometry has revealed that ischemia in the gastric mucosa is the main cause of the acute gastric mucosal lesions in patients with thermal or head injury. This study represented noninvasive methodology for the measurement of the gastric mucosal blood volume in patients with gastric diseases.