ABSTRACT
The present artificial anal sphincter fails to distinguish the different states of intestinal contents. In this study, we tried to distinguish the intestinal content by using a reflection type ultrasonic system, so as to lay the foundation for the development of artificial anal sphincter with sensing function. We measured the numbers of reflected waves when there were solid, liquid, gaseous or no contents in the recta of 30 Bama Miniature pigs. The results showed significant difference among the numbers of reflected waves of the 4 conditions ( = 1 088, < 0.05). Our research suggested the reflection-type ultrasonic system could be utilized to distinguish various contents inside the intestinal lumen, thus it might offer a new effective method for the development of artificial anal sphincter with sensing function.