402 P&T® • July 2006 • Vol. 31 No. 7 Digestive Disease Week is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers, and academicians in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy, and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, the American Gastroenterological Association, the American Society for Gastrointestina...

An 80-year-old woman was diagnosed of a 10 cm colorectal laterally spreading tumor granular-type in the splenic flexure (Fig. 1). Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) was performed but pediatric colonoscope approach (PCF-Q260JI, Olympus, Japan) was technically difficult due to the narrow transverse colon working space. Then, single-balloon endoscopy system using a 3.2 mm channel gastroscope (...

The traditional understanding is that an entirely new complement of digestive enzymes is secreted by the pancreas into the small intestines with each meal. This is thought to be necessary because, like food itself, these enzymes are degraded during digestion. In this review we discuss experiments that bring this point of view into question. They suggest that digestive enzymes can be absorbed in...

A young filly in a stall at a high-class boarding stable lay down in her stall, got up, and lay down again, with dull, glassy eyes. She tried to roll before the caretaker caught her and haltered her, walking her slowly until the veterinarian could come to see her. When the veterinarian arrived, she listened to the filly’s gut sounds with the stethoscope to see if they were abnormal, and diagnos...

A 28-year-old male with an unremarkable history was referred from the outpatient clinic due to right-flank abdominal pain during the last three months. On physical examination the patient had right-flank tenderness and was negative for Murphy’s sign. The laboratory tests were normal. An abdominal ultrasound was performed, revealing a normal sized gallbladder with thin walls and no stones, altho...

OBJECTIVES To assess the economic impact, research output and research support of digestive diseases, and to compare them to those of other common disease entities, specifically mental, cardiovascular, respiratory, and central nervous system diseases. METHODS Economic burden was assessed with the use of (a) published Canadian government data of direct cost from 1963 to 1993, (b) data from the...

Larval stages are considered as the weakest link when a species is exposed to challenging environmental changes1,2. Reduced rates of growth and development in larval stages of calcifying invertebrates in response to ocean acidification might be caused by energetic limitations3. So far no information exists on how ocean acidification affects digestive processes in marine larval stages. Here we r...

All digestive systems perform common functions: breaking down ingested food to its constituent monomers, absorbing these monomers across the alimentary epithelium, and getting rid of indigestible components. The vertebrate digestive tract consists of a longitudinal tube through the body with a common basic wall plan; the length of the tube and the modifications in the wall depend partly on diet...

Many plant seeds and invertebrates can survive passage through the digestive system of birds, which may lead to long distance dispersal (endozoochory) in case of prolonged retention by moving vectors. Endozoochorous dispersal by waterbirds has nowadays been documented for many aquatic plant seeds, algae and dormant life stages of aquatic invertebrates. Anecdotal information indicates that endoz...

Filarial worms are parasitic nematodes that cause devastating diseases such as lymphatic filariasis (LF) and onchocerciasis. Filariae are nematodes with complex anatomy including fully developed digestive tracts and reproductive organs. To better understand the basic biology of filarial parasites and to provide insights into drug targets and vaccine design, we conducted a proteomic analysis of ...