BACKGROUND A sensation of abdominal bloating, sometimes accompanied by an increase in girth (distension), is one of the most common and most intrusive features of functional bowel disorders. AIM To conduct a systematic, evidence-based review of the epidemiology and pathophysiology of abdominal bloating and its relationship to distension. METHODS The terms bloating, distension, functional bo...

The parabrachial nucleus (PBN) is regarded as an important locus for the processing and integration of sensory inputs from oral, gastrointestinal, and postabsorptive receptor sites and is thus thought to play an important role in regulating food intake. Gastric distension is an important satiation cue; however, such responses have been qualitatively characterized only over a limited area of the...

BACKGROUND A sensation of abdominal swelling (bloating) and actual increase in girth (distension) are troublesome features of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), which is more common in patients with constipation, especially those with delayed transit. AIM To establish whether a fermented dairy product containing Bifidobacterium lactis DN-173 010 reduces distension in association with acceleratio...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW To evaluate evidence and present an objective view on the effect of nitrous oxide on bowel function. RECENT FINDINGS We determined in a metaanalysis that the chance of having intraoperative bowel distension was increased about two fold in patients receiving nitrous oxide as the anaesthetic carrier gas compared with those receiving nitrogen or oxygen. In a separate logistic r...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are characterized by abnormal central processing with altered brain activation in response to visceral nociceptive signals. The effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on IBS patients is unclear. The study is set to study the effect of EA on brain activation during noxious rectal distension in IBS patients using a randomized sham-controlled...

PURPOSE To optimize the dose of a hydro solution containing 2.5% mannitol and 0.2% locust bean gum (LBG) for small bowel MRI in terms of bowel distension and patient acceptance. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 10 healthy volunteers ingested a hydro solution containing 2.5% mannitol and 0.2% LBG. Four different volumes (1500, 1200, 1000, and 800 ml) were assessed on four different examination...

BACKGROUND Gallbladder pathology has been associated with cardiovascular disease. Recently, we showed that gallbladder distension in anesthetized pigs reflexly increased heart rate, arterial pressure, and coronary and renal vascular resistance through efferent sympathetic mechanisms. Renin release is affected by sympathetic output, and angiotensin liberation may result in vasoconstriction. This...

The purpose of this paper is to assess colonic distension and length and to evaluate a polyp matching algorithm on prone and supine studies in CT colonography (CTC) computer aided diagnosis (CAD). Our CTC CAD software was used to reconstruct the colonic surface, to compute the colon centerline and to detect spatial positions of polyps. Normalized distance along the centerline (NDAC) and colon d...