Members of the genus Gongylonema  are nematodes that commonly infect ruminants, particularly sheep and goats. An 11-year-old donkey mare was referred to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, School of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, northeastern Iran, with a history of acute colitis. At post-mortem examination, there were several white to pink zigzag tracks in the muco...

1. Nicotine, 20 mug/ml, briefly and partially blocked the longitudinal contractions of a chick vagus nerve-oesophagus preparation to nerve stimulation, but potentiated them in the presence of hyoscine, 10 mug/ml.2. Strychnine, 20 mug/ml, antagonized the longitudinal contractions of the chick oesophagus to nerve stimulation, though not to acetylcholine or 5-hydroxytryptamine. Hyoscine, 10 mug/ml...

BACKGROUND Patients with aerophagia are believed to have excessive belches due to air swallowing. Intraluminal impedance monitoring has made it possible to investigate the validity of this concept. METHODS The authors measured oesophageal pH and electrical impedance before and after a meal in 14 patients with excessive belching and 14 healthy controls and identified patterns of air transport ...

Achalasia of the oesophagus is a disease which has achieved more importance than would be expected, considering its extreme rarity. This is due partially to the excitement of seeing a large dilated oesophagus on x-ray but mainly because it demonstrates what can go wrong with normal physiology. The healthy oesophagus consists of a hollow muscular tube closed by a sphincter at each end, and is no...

There are few epidemiological data on the dietary risk factors of Barrett's oesophagus, a precursor of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. The present study investigated the association between vegetable, fruit and nitrate intake and Barrett's oesophagus risk in a large prospective cohort. The Netherlands Cohort Study recruited 120,852 individuals aged 55-69 years in 1986. Vegetable and fruit intake wa...

Intestinal metaplasia of the oesophagus (Barrett’s oesophagus) is the most important risk factor for oesophageal adenocarcinoma. Although the role of mixed bile and acid gastro-oesophageal reflux is well established, the contribution of nuclear receptor signalling in the pathogenesis of Barrett’s oesophagus remains largely unknown. The recent article by Chang et al. (Gut 2007;56:906–17) showing...

AIMS It has been suggested that adenocarcinomas of the lower oesophagus and gastric cardia should be reclassified as oesophagogastric junction (OGJ) cancers. This study aimed to define the frequency of OGJ cancers in a geographically defined population of 4.3 million people. METHODS All cases of oesophageal and gastric cancer occurring in 1993 were identified by the North Western Regional Can...

The aim of this study was to compare acid reflux in 16 patients with uncomplicated Barrett's oesophagus with 37 patients with reflux oesophagitis and 10 control subjects of comparable age. All patients had 24 hour ambulatory pH monitoring within one week of endoscopy. The controls differed significantly from the other groups in all indices of reflux but there was no difference between the Barre...

THE essential disturbance in achalasia is a failure of the cardiac sphincter to relax adequately when the patient swallows. This causes the oesophageal tube to be closed to both liquids and solids by an elastic process that can be forced open a varying amount by building up pressure in the oesophagus, in addition there is damage to some of the postganglionic neurones in the wall of the oesophag...

Barrett's oesophagus is the major risk factor for the development of oesophageal adenocarcinoma. The management of Barrett's oesophagus entails treating reflux symptoms with acid-suppressing medication or surgery (fundoplication). However, neither form of anti-reflux therapy produces predictable regression, or prevents cancer development. Patients with Barrett's oesophagus usually undergo endos...