Neurohumoral substances and their receptors play a major part in the complex regulation of gastrointestinal motility and have therefore been the predominant targets for drug development. The numerous receptors involved in motility are located mainly on smooth muscle cells and neuronal structures in the extrinsic and intrinsic parts of the enteric nervous system. Within this system, receptor ago...

Chronic Intestinal Pseudo-Obstruction (CIPO) is a rare, but life-threatening, disease characterized by severe intestinal dysmotility. Histopathological studies of CIPO patients have identified several different mechanisms that appear to be responsible for the dysmotility, including defects in neurons, smooth muscle or interstitial cells of Cajal. Currently there are few mouse models of the vari...

Drug treatment of functional dyspepsia is often unsatisfactory. We assessed the efficacy of a bicarbonate-sulphate-calcium thermal water cycle of 12 days, in patients with functional dyspepsia. Patients with functional dyspepsia were sent by their general practitioners to 12 days of treatment with thermal water, 200-400 ml in the morning, at temperature of 33 degrees C (91.4 F) and were evaluat...

BACKGROUND AND AIM Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder in Romania, managed frequently by General Practitioners (GPs). It is necessary to assess the knowledge of GPs on IBS. A preliminary investigation was carried out in two Romanian counties. METHODS One hundred GPs were invited to a two hour, free, updating course on IBS. The participants were asked to fill a questionnaire be...

The ability to reproduce chest pain and to identify the esophagus as the source of this pain are the major reasons why provocation testing has become standard in the evaluation of patients with noncardiac chest pain. Recent studies that challenge the validity of performing provocation tests have polarized experts into two camps: those who would abandon such testing because of its low sensitivit...

Though the pathophysiology of the irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is commonly attributed to dysfunction of the large intestine, evidence exists to incriminate the small bowel. In order to further explore the role of the small bowel in IBS several stimuli were applied, in an attempt to unmask the dysmotility of the jejunum and ileum. These included infusions of cholecystokinin-octapeptide (CCK-OP...

INTRODUCTION The majority of cases of post-prandial reactive hypoglycemia are considered idiopathic. Abnormalities of B-cell function and glucose regulation by insulin and glucagon have been postulated as causes but associated gastrointestinal dysfunction has not been reported. We report the first case of accelerated gastric emptying associated with post-prandial reactive hypoglycemia, abdomina...

Autoimmune autonomic neuropathy (AAN) is an acquired, often severe, form of dysautonomia. Many patients with AAN have serum antibodies specific for the neuronal ganglionic nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (AChR). Rabbits immunized with a fusion protein corresponding to the N-terminal extracellular domain of the ganglionic AChR alpha3 subunit produce ganglionic AChR antibodies and develop signs ...

PURPOSE To test whether hemorrhagic shock (HS) increases the Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in the intestine and whether this enhanced COX-2 expression mediates the intestinal dysmotility after HS. METHODS Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into HS sham group and HS group. At 180 min following HS establishment, the duodenum samples were harvested to assess the motility function, prot...

INTRODUCTION Intramural oesophageal dissection (IOD) is a rare clinical condition and there is a paucity of information regarding the appropriate diagnosis and management. It is described as bleeding in the submucosal plane of the oesophagus, and has various documented causes. PRESENTATION OF CASE We report a case of a 73 year old female who developed IOD. She presented with severe chest pain...