Abstracts from Around the World

Variceal bleeding is a common and life threatening manifestation of portal hypertension. The use of esophageal banding has improved hemostasis rates, but there remain patients who fail such treatment....

A common dilemma in the management of Crohn's disease is the patient who either cannot be discontinued from steroids because of continued disease activity or previously responded and now, within a sho...

The role of small bowel bacterial overgrowth (SBO) in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) remains controversial. This study examined adults with IBS based on ROME II criteria whose predominant symptoms wer...

The rising incidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and the link between symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux and obesity with this cancer are well recognized. This nationwide case-control study of...

Last year, our societies created a 9 member task force to evaluate the current gastroenterology training model and to make appropriate recommendations. The rationale for revisiting our current trainin...

Recent attention has focused on the potential deleterious effects of radiation exposure from medical imaging procedures. Experimental and epidemiologic evidence suggests that low dose exposure to ioni...

Limited observation suggests that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are associated with hemorrhagic complications. Determination of such an association would be important given the wides...

A link between gastroesophageal reflux (GER) and asthma has long been considered, and investigation for GER and/or empiric use of proton pump inhibitors for severe asthmatics with reflux symptoms is o...

Inflammatory bowel disease is recognized as a multigenic disorder. Several genes have been uncovered including the NOD2 gene, which was the first susceptibility gene identified. The question studied h...

A wealth of data now suggests that patients with upper GI bleeding (UGIB) at low risk for poor outcome may be managed in an outpatient setting; however, such a strategy has not been universally adopte...