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Query: UMLS:C0000737 (abdominal pain)
 31,184 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Strongyloides stercoralis is an intestinal nematode which infects a large portion of the world's population. Individuals with infection confined to the intestinal tract are often asymptomatic but may have abdominal pain, weight loss, diarrhea, and other nonspecific complaints. Enhanced proliferation of the parasite in compromised hosts causes an augmentation of the normal life-cycle. Resultant massive invasion of the gastrointestinal tract and lungs is termed the hyperinfection syndrome. If the worm burden is excessive, parasitic invasion of other tissues occurs and is termed disseminated strongyloidiasis. A variety of underlying conditions appear to predispose to severe infections. These are primarily diseases characterized by immunodeficiency due to defective T-lymphocyte function (Table 1). Individuals with less severe disorders become compromised hosts because of therapeutic regimens consisting of corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive medication. The debilitation of chronic illness or malnutrition also predisposes to systemic stronglyloidiasis. The diagnosis of strongyloidiasis can be readily made by microscopic examination of concentrates of upper small bowel fluid, stool, or sputum. Important clues suggesting this infection include unexplained gram-negative bacillary bacteremia in a compromised host who may have vague abdominal complaints, an ileus pattern on X-ray, and pulmonary infiltrates. Eosinophilia is helpful, if present, but should not be relied upon to exclude the diagnosis. The treatment of systemic infection due to Strongyloides stercoralis with either thiabensazole 25 mg/kg orally twice daily is satisfactory if the diagnosis is made early. Because of several unusual features of this illness in compromised hosts, the standard recommendation for 2 days of therapy should be abandoned in such patients. Immunodeficiency, corticosteroids, and bowel ileus reduce drug efficacy. Thus a longer treatment period of at leuch as blind loops or diverticula necessitate longer treatment. Stool specimens and upper small bowel aspirates should be monitored regularly and treatment continued several days beyond the last evidence of the parasite. In particularly difficult situations where either worm eradication is impossible or reinfection is probable, short monthly courses of antihelminthic therapy seem to be effective in averting recurrent systemic illness. Finally, prevention of hyperinfection or dissemination due to Strongyloides stercoralis can be accomplished by screening immunocompromised hosts with stool and upper small bowel aspirate examinations. These would be especially important prior to initiating chemotherapy, or before giving immunosuppressive medications or corticosteroids to patients with nonneoplastic conditions such as systemic lupus erythematosus, nephrotic syndrome, or renal allografts.
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PMID:Overwhelming strongyloidiasis: an unappreciated opportunistic infection. 36 22

In the great majority of patients treated with radiation, only transitory injury to the bowel occurs, but in five percent of patients, permanent damage to the small bowel or rectum is seen. Symptoms of radiation enteropathy may begin four to six months after the treatment is completed or may not present until several years later. Most often, the patient presents with abdominal pain, diarrhea, hematochezia, and signs of malnutrition. Others may present, initially, with intestinal obstruction, perforation, or fistulization. It is important to differentiate this clinical syndrome from recurrent cancer by appropriate radiological studies and biopsies.This paper presents four patients who were treated with radiation for invasive carcinoma of the cervix and subsequently developed radiation enteritis. All were treated surgically and are surviving.
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PMID:Surgical management of radiation enteritis. 44 53

Chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudoobstruction (CIIP) is a disorder of alimentary tract motility with onset of symptoms in adolescence or young adulthood, characterized by recurring attacks of abdominal pain, distention, vomiting, and constipation often leading to malnutrition and death. Starting with an adolescent patient, treated for a succession of life-threatening attacks of pseudoobstruction, the authors have identified CIIP in four generations of a Virginia family. Studies show characteristic dilation and diminished motility of the esophagus and intestine. Surgery's role in CIIP is palliative, and operation should only be offered when medical measures have failed to control symptoms.
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PMID:A perspective for pediatric surgeons: chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudoobstruction. 55 Nov 50

The prevalence of diabetes due to chronic pancreatitis would appear to be increasing. In western countries this is associated with the known increase in alcohol consumption and AIP. Malnutrition may be etiologic in tropical areas. The incidence of diabetes in chronic pancreatitis is dependent on a number of factors. It is more common in alcohol-induced pancreatitis, rarely occurs after the first attack but tends to increase with time and rises markedly in calcific pancreatitis. Abnormal glucose tolerance occurred in 91% of patients with calcific pancreatitis and 70% of patients with noncalific AIP in our follow up of five to 12 years. This stresses the importance of serial regular glucose tolerance tests in these patients (Table I). The insulin-reserve is severely depleted in most patients who do not yet demonstrate abnormal glucose tolerance, indicating that pancreatitis regularly affects the islets and that nearly all patients are potential diabetics. The beta cells appear to respond better to oral glucose, glucagon or secretin than to i.v. glucose suggesting a selective glucose receptor loss or block to hyperglycemia in chronic pancreatitis. The alpha cells seem to be more resistant to the effects of chronic pancreatitis but true hypoglucagonemia was found in 16% of patients. In addition, stimulated growth hormone secretion may be deficient in pancreatic diabetes. These last two factors, among others, may be responsible for the protracted and even fatal hypoglycemia to which some patients with AIP on insulin therapy are liable. The danger of drug-induced hypoglycemia, coupled with the infrequency of vasculopathy, retinopathy and nephropathy in pancreatic diabetes has induced us to keep these patients hyperglycemic and glycosuric rather than in a sugar-free state, as long as symptoms are contained. Recurrent abdominal pain, marked weight loss and associated steatorrhea often raise special problems in the management of the pancreatic diabetic.
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PMID:Clinical and hormonal aspects of pancreatic diabetes. 80 21

Eleven children with the diagnosis of chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudo-obstruction are presented. Four children, all siblings of a symptomatic patient, were asymptomatic and were diagnosed radiographically. The clinical course was characterized by intermittent episodes of abdominal distention, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, and malnutrition. Radiographic studies were most helpful in making the diagnosis. Findings on upper gastrointestinal series included abnormal esophageal motility, delayed gastric emptying, dilated loops of small bowel, and disorganized transit of barium. Half of the patients had abnormal evacuation patterns on barium enema. Manometric studies of esophageal motility were abnormal in seven of ten children. In those patients studied, small bowel and rectal biopsies contained ganglion cells. Treatment was directed at relieving symptoms, which in four patients became persistent and required total parenteral nutrition. CIIPS carries a poor long-term prognosis in children.
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PMID:Chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudo-obstruction syndrome in children--clinical characteristics and prognosis. 83 71

Five cases of malignant duodenocolic fistula seen at the Massachusetts General Hospital in the past thirty years are reviewed. Rarely encountered, these lesions are characterized by diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain, anemia, and sometimes feculent vomiting. Barium enemas are more likely to demonstrate the fistula tract than upper gastrointestinal series. Nutritional deficiencies may be profound, and the use of preoperative hyperalimentation is encouraged. Operations that accomplish only bypass of the fistula are of minimal palliative value, and the fistula should be divided or resected if possible. When feasible, wide resection is the procedure of choice, and a fourteen year survival is reported after this operation.
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PMID:Malignant duodenocolic fistulas. 86 13

The clinical findings and pathological changes in a 14 year old boy who died from severe malabsorption are presented. Early signs of the illness were attacks of abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and intermittent periods of constipation. Later, severe malabsorption together with chronic ileus were apparent but no organic obstruction was found at several laparotomies. X-ray examination revealed extremly distended intestinal loops and a very slow transit time of barium. Malnutrition could not be improved by dietary, medical, or surgical therapy. Microscopic examination of the tissues obtained at autopsy showed changes in the small vessels of the lungs, heart, kidneys, and intestine. Increased fibrous tissue combined with atrophy of the muscular coat was observed in the wall of the entire intestine. Although cutaneous changes of scleroderma were not evident the deposition of collagenous material and the vascular changes seem typical of systemic sclerosis.
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PMID:Sclerosis of the intestinal tract with severe malabsorption. 89 73

Chronic pancreatitis is defined by a persistent destruction of the pancreatic parenchyma replaced by fibrosis. The lesions generally start in the exocrine gland, islets being attacked later in the fibrosis. The two most frequent forms are: 1. Chronic calcifying pancreatitis which is a pancreatic lithiasis responsible for more than 95% of chronic pancreatitis. In its most frequent form, calculi are built up of more than 98% calcium salts together with fibres of a degraded residue of lithostathine, a secretory protein. This disease is related (i) in most countries to alcohol, protein, fat and tobacco and (ii) in certain tropical countries to malnutrition (low-fat, low-protein diet) for some generations. A causative role for cassava and kwashiorkor is improbable. The mechanism of calcium precipitation is partly explained by the calcium-saturation of pancreatic juice and the decreased biosynthesis of lithostathine S, the secretory protein preventing crystallization. As a rule, diabetes (and steatorrhoea) appear after a clinical evolution characterized by recurrent attacks of upper abdominal pain, generally lasting some days with transiently increased concentrations of pancreatic enzymes in serum. When diabetes appears, pain frequently disappears. Complications are mostly observed in the first 10 years of clinical evolution. 2. Obstructive pancreatitis is due to an obstacle (tumours, scars) in the pancreatic duct. It is rarely a cause of diabetes. Diabetes due to chronic pancreatitis is characterized by the low incidence of ketosis and the high incidence of insulin-induced hypoglycaemia. Patients are generally thin. Serum insulin levels, either basal or stimulated, are decreased. Glucagon is less affected. Angiopathies and retinopathies are less frequent than in non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Neural complications are fairly frequent. The diagnosis is generally easy because diabetes appears at a late stage of the disease. The treatment generally requires insulin.
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PMID:Chronic pancreatitis and diabetes. 144 67

The patient, an 18-yr-old male (admission ht 153 cm, wt 30 kg), had been suffering from growth arrest and intermittent abdominal pain since he was 13 yr old, which was left untreated. Examinations on admission disclosed almost normal pituitary function, while levels of testosterone and somatomedin C were low. Roentgenological examination revealed extensive skip-stenotic lesions and longitudinal ulcers in the ileum, diagnostic of Crohn's disease. Therapy involving high-caloric parenteral and enteral alimentation resulted in a marked increase in both ht and wt, and improvement in roentgenological and colonoscopical findings. The interrelation between Crohn's disease and malnutrition with reference to some reports in the literature is discussed.
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PMID:Remarkable improvement of growth and developmental retardation in Crohn's disease by parenteral and enteral nutrition therapy. 156 41

Chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudoobstruction is a diagnosis of exclusion for the rare patient with severe small bowel atony without any demonstrable organic cause. The very poor prognosis associated with this disease has been somewhat improved with the advent of parenteral nutrition; nevertheless, these patients follow a stormy course characterized by malnutrition, recurrent obstruction, infection, hemorrhage, and perforation. We describe a 16-year-old boy with this disease who presented to us with vague abdominal pain and pneumoperitoneum. Laparotomy showed pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis without intestinal perforation. The presence of free air in the abdominal cavity is an almost pathognomonic sign of intestinal perforation. Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis is one of the very few nonsurgical causes of pneumoperitoneum. Beyond the neonatal period, in which it is the hallmark of necrotizing enterocolitis, it has been described in patients with severe obstructive lung disease, in collagenous disorders, and in the short-bowel syndrome. In the present case, it may have resulted from chronic intestinal distension, allowing air under pressure to dissect through the bowel wall. The challenge of such a unique association of conditions lies in the avoidance of unnecessary surgery in a chronic, essentially nonsurgical disease while avoiding unnecessary delay in a possibly acute surgical event.
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PMID:Pneumatosis and pneumoperitoneum in chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudoobstruction. 176 13


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