Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common complication in patients with hepatic cirrhosis. Ammonia from intestinal overgrowth with bacteria is the main cause of HE symptoms. Treatment of intestinal bacterial overgrowth with antibiotics that have low gastrointestinal absorption demonstrates the most benefit. However, increasing gastrointestinal motility is another integral part of treatment and cu...

BACKGROUND Data on small intestinal transit time in healthy children are lacking, and normal values for gastric emptying and colonic transit time are sparse. Conventional methods, including radiopaque markers, scintigraphy, and PillCam™ involve radiation or require the child to swallow a large pill. The minimally invasive, radiation-free Motility Tracking System-1 (MTS-1) has been introduced fo...

Background Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are common in the general population. This investigation studied the effects of Carthami flos (CF), a natural product, on GI motility. Methods We checked the intestinal transit rates (ITRs) or gastric emptying in normal and in GI-motility-dysfunction (GMD) mice in vivo. The GMD mice were made by acetic acid or streptozotocin. Results Both ITRs and g...

The gastrointestinal tract represents the most important extra pineal source of melatonin. Presence of melatonin (M) suggests that this hormone is somehow involved in digestive pathophysiology. Release of GI melatonin from serotonin-rich enterochromaffin EC cells of the GI mucosa suggest close antagonistic relationship with serotonin (S) and seem to be related to periodicity of food intake. Foo...

CC This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. *Correspondence: Jae Yeoul Jun, MD, PhD Department of Physiology, Chosun Univesity Schoo...

This contribution to the centennial commemorative issue of the American Journal of Physiology: Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology identifies some of the important studies of spontaneous electrical and motor activity in the gastrointestinal tract published in the Journal between 1898 and 1996. Emphasis is given to the contributions made by Walter B. Cannon, Walter C. Alvarez, Emil Bozler, C. ...

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE This Medical Policy provides assistance in interpreting UnitedHealthcare benefit plans. When deciding coverage, the enrollee specific document must be referenced. The terms of an enrollee's document (e.g., Certificate of Coverage (COC) or Summary Plan Description (SPD) and Medicaid State Contracts) may differ greatly from the standard benefit plans upon which this Medical P...

Biological rhythms coordinate the timing of our internal bodily functions. Colonic motility follows a rhythm as well: most people will have a bowel movement in the morning and rarely during the night. Recent work provides a potential mechanism for this observation: the mouse colon possesses a functional circadian clock as well as a subset of rhythmically expressed genes that may directly impact...