Abstract
Hydrogen gas clearance method is a applicative method to measure gastric mucosal blood flow though endoscope. But, it is necessary to stick a needle electrode into gastric wall as much as 2 mm depth in order to stabilized the electrode. The tip of it may be in the submucosa and the mucosal blood flow cannot be measured precisely. The authors designated a special electrode. This has two needle electrodes, the longer one (A-electrode) and the shorter one (B-electrode). A-electrode is 1.5 mm longer than B-electrode. So when the tip of A-electrode is located in 2 mm depth, the tip of B-electrode will be located in 0.5 mm depth from the mucosal surface. On this situation, when the gastric blood flow is measured with this electrode by hydrogen gas clearance method, the mucosal blood flow will be reflected in B-electrode. As a result, there was no difference between the values in two electrodes. Blood flow of gastric body is greater than that of gastric antrum in every cases. The authors concluded that the depth of the tip of the electrode did not affect the the results within 2 mm depth from the mucosal surface.
