Body surface colonic mapping detects meal and bisacodyl-induced colonic motility in patients with chronic constipation

Abstract Chronic constipation is highly prevalent, and cases refractory to treatment are particularly challenging to manage. High-resolution colonic manometry (HRM) is used to further evaluate these patients to identify cases of intrinsic motor dysfunction (underlying myopathy or neuropathy). However, HRM is invasive and resource-intensive, limiting uptake and clinical utility. This study presents Body Surface Colonic Mapping (BSCM), a non-invasive cutaneous electrical recording technique, as a clinical alternative. Simultaneous recordings from HRM (36-channel) and BSCM (8×8 electrode array) were performed in 10 patients with chronic refractory constipation. Lower gut symptom scores were also tracked patients over the duration of the recording. Motility was assessed during meal and bisacodyl challenges. We optimized BSCM signal processing specifically to detect high-amplitude propagating contractions (HAPCs) evoked by bisacodyl. Analysis included time-frequency quantification of motility indices and blinded visual assessment by domain experts to classify the presence or absence of motor responses. BSCM motility indices showed strong correlation with HRM for both meal ( r = 0.86) and bisacodyl ( r = 0.69) responses. Expert visual analysis yielded concordant classification between BSCM and HRM in the majority (87.5 ± 9.6%) of cases. Furthermore, BSCM identified distinct, patient-specific symptom-motility associations during the meal response. BSCM accurately detects meal- and stimulant-induced increases in colonic motility with high fidelity to invasive HRM. As a non-invasive method that is easy to apply with minimal resource and time requirements, BSCM is well-positioned for clinical translation as a scalable diagnostic tool to elucidate symptom-motility associations and guide personalized management in refractory chronic constipation.