Abstract
Objectives
Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (TaVNS) is a supplementary treatment
for gastric symptoms resulting from dysrhythmias. The main objective of this study
was to quantify the effects of 10, 40, and 80 Hz TaVNS and sham in healthy individuals
in response to a 5-minute water-load (WL5) test.
Materials and Methods
Eighteen healthy volunteers aged between 21 and 55 years (body mass index: 27.1 ±
3.2) were recruited. Each subject fasted for up to eight hours and participated in
four 95-minute sessions, which consisted of 30 fasted baseline, 30 minutes TaVNS,
WL5, and 30 minutes post-WL5. Heart rate variability was assessed using sternal electrocardiogram.
Body-surface gastric mapping and bloating (/10) were recorded. One-way ANOVA with
post hoc Tukey test was performed to test the difference between TaVNS protocols in
terms of frequency, amplitude, bloating scores, root mean square of the successive
differences (RMSSD), and stress index (SI).
Results
On average, the subjects consumed 526 ± 160 mL of water, with volume ingested correlated
to bloating (mean score 4.1 ± 1.8; r = 0.36, p = 0.029). In general, the reduction in frequency and rhythm stability during the
post-WL5 period in sham was normalized by all three TaVNS protocols. Both 40- and
80-Hz protocols also caused increases in amplitude during the stim-only and/or post-WL5
periods. RMSSD increased during the 40-Hz protocol. SI increased during the 10-Hz
protocol but decreased during the 40- and 80-Hz protocols.
Conclusion
TaVNS proved effective in normalizing gastric dysrhythmias by WL5 in healthy subjects
by altering both parasympathetic and sympathetic pathways.
Graphical abstract
Graphical Abstract
Keywords
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Comment
Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 29, 2023
Accepted:
February 13,
2023
Received in revised form:
January 24,
2023
Received:
September 5,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Corrected ProofFootnotes
Source(s) of financial support: This work and authors were funded by grants administered by the Royal Society Te Apārangi, in addition to a feasibility grant from the MedTech CoRE.
Conflict of Interest: Peng Du, Stefan Calder, Gregory O’Grady, and Armen Gharibans hold intellectual property in the field of gastrointestinal electrophysiology and are members of Alimetry Ltd. Yusuf Ozgur Cakmak is a shareholder in Stoparkinson Healthcare Systems LLC. The remaining authors reported no conflict of interest.
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© 2023 International Neuromodulation Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
