Resistance of postprandial gastric functions and autonomic balance to taste stimulation.

Exposure to unpleasant tastes leads to disturbances of interdigestive gastric myoelectrical activity (GMA) and may affect sympathetic/parasympathetic balance (SPB). We made a careful study to determine whether taste stimulation modulates the postprandial GMA, SPB, and gastric emptying (GE) of a solid meal. Eighteen healthy volunteers (9F/9M) entered the study. On six separate days, we recorded a four-channel electrogastrogram from each volunteer during a 35-min fasting period, then for 90 min after ingestion of a solid test meal of 300 kcal. GE was measured using a 13C-octanoic acid breath test. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis was simultaneously performed. At the start of the 21st min after the test meal, subjects received an agar cube delivering either a sweet, salty, sour, or bitter taste, which they kept in the mouth for 35 min. Control procedures involved sessions performed with a tasteless agar cube, and without any stimulation. There was no effect of the experimental intervention upon the relative power share of particular GMA rhythms. Stimulation with the salty and the bitter taste evoked a statistically significant increase in the dominant frequency, whereas the sweet and sour taste did not affect it. Taste stimulation did not interfere with the meal-induced rise in the dominant power, nor affect slow wave coupling. The kinetics of the solid GE remained unchanged by the intervention. None of the taste stimulations affected the postprandial SPB. Taste stimulation elicited after ingestion of a meal, in contrast to that during a fast, did not adversely modify the postprandial pattern of either the GMA or SPB, nor affect the GE of solids.

Effects of taste stimulation on gastric myoelectrical activity and autonomic balance.

Background/Aim: Sham feeding, reproducing the cephalic phase of digestion, and involving combined visual, olfactory, and taste stimulation affects gastrointestinal motility and secretory functions of the digestive system, as well as the sympathetic/parasympathetic balance (SPB). In this study, we aimed to check if taste stimulation with a single flavor affects the gastric myoelectrical activity (GMA) and/or SPB. Materials and Methods: Eighteen healthy volunteers underwent, on four separate days, 30-min electrogastrographic and electrocardiographic recordings: basal, with stimulation - while keeping in the mouth an agar cube with taste-delivering substance, and postexposure. Concentrations of saccharose, NaCl, citric acid, and quinine hydrochloride within the cubes were adjusted to 100-fold the individual taste recognition thresholds. SPB was determined from the heart rate variability (HRV) analysis of the recorded electrocardiograms. Results: A moderate but statistically significant increase in tachygastria and bradygastria percentage time share was observed, regardless of the type of taste applied. Bitter taste elicited a considerable decrease in the normogastria time share (from 82.8 ± 2.5% to 73.5 ± 3.5%, P = 0.00076) and a diminution of the dominant frequency (from 3.07 ± 0.08 to 2.90 ± 0.10 cycles per minute (cpm) postexposure, P = 0.01). Sour taste brought about a drop of the dominant power (from 42.5 ± 1.1 to 40.1 ± 1.4 dB, P = 0.0015). Two tastes hindered propagation of the gastric slow waves - the average percentage of slow wave coupling decreased from 77.9 ± 3.1% to 69.5 ± 3.1% (P = 0.0078) and from 74.6 ± 2.5% to 68.2 ± 2.8% (P = 0.0054) with the bitter and the salty taste, respectively. Stimulation with sweet, salty, or sour taste evoked a significant decrease in the high frequency component of the HRV, whereas bitter taste did not affect the SPB. Conclusions: Oral stimulation with tastes subjectively perceived as unpleasant brings about disturbances of the interdigestive GMA. This, however, does not coincide with its effect upon SPB.

Extracirculatory effects of noise of various frequency spectra in humans--effect of pink and blue noise on gastric myoelectrical activity and gastrointestinal passage of nutrients.

Recent investigations in humans point out to a disturbing effect of auditory stimuli on the functional integrity of the brain-gut axis. The study was devoted to a systematic comparative evaluation of the effect of noises of different frequency spectra on the postprandial electrical and transport functions of the digestive tract in humans. Twenty six healthy subjects attended a cross-over study, which aimed at comparison of the effect of pink contrasted to blue noise within a given category (band or tonal) and a meal stimulus type (semi-liquid or solid test meal). A panel of noninvasive measurement methods was applied: heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, surface electrogastrography, (13)CO(2) breath tests for gastric emptying (GE), lactulose hydrogen breath test for orocecal transit time (OCTT). The blue tonal noise was rated the most annoying one, whereas solely the pink noises exerted discernible cardiovascular effects. No one of the four noises was capable of overriding the meal-induced preponderance of the sympathetic tone. The postprandial gastric myoelectrical activity and the GE of either the semiliquid or the solid test meal appeared to be ;resistant' to the noise exposure, irrespective of the noise type. Similar was the finding in the case of the OCTT, with the exception of a statistically significant retardation of the OCTT with the blue band noise. Ingestion of mixed caloric meals seems to elicit a protective influence against noise-elicited derangements of the functional integrity of the digestive tract proven formerly to occur during the fasting period.

[Changes of drug reimbursement expenses incurred by National Health Fund in Silesian voivodeship in the period of 1999-2004]. / Zmiany wydatków na leki refundowane, ponoszonych przez Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia w województwie slaskim w latach 1999-2004.

The new healthcare financing system that was implemented in 1999 finished the existence of the budgetary financing system and made the switch to insurance system. Since the very beginning of the new system expenses of drug reimbursement constituted a substantial part of healthcare services costs in all regions of Poland. Simultaneously, owing to the lack of possibility to control these costs, reimbursement expense was one of least predictable points of Sickness Funds budgets. Since 1999, in Silesian voivodeship, sales volume of reimbursed drugs increased as well as total financial burden of reimbursement. In the surveyed years an amount of money paid by insurer (sickness funds, National Health Fund) to one pack of reimbursed drug increased. Volume of consumed packs of drugs and real value of reimbursement per voivodeship citizen rose as well. In 2002 and 2003 patients' uncertainty regarding composition of new reimbursement lists promoted increase in drug sales, what in a consequence gave a substantial rise in reimbursement costs.