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

Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction denotes the clinical picture that results due to the failure of intestinal peristalsis to overcome the normal resistance to flow and is characterized by recurrent episodes of signs and symptoms of intestinal obstruction in the absence of any mechanical compromise of the intestinal lumen. The region(s) of the gut affected may be isolated or diffuse. It is not uncommon to find evidence of autonomic neuropathy and smooth muscle dysfunction with extraintestinal manifestations such as urinary symptoms from abnormal ureter or bladder function. Intestinal pseudo-obstruction can be caused by a variety of diseases, and for simplicity, certain authors have divided it into myopathic and neuropathic categories. Intestinal pseudo-obstruction may present at any age with a variable amount of abdominal pain, distension, nausea, diarrhea, or constipation and with laboratory abnormalities usually reflecting the degree of malabsorption and malnutrition present. The radiologic findings are varied but commonly include paralytic ileus or signs of apparent clinical obstruction with dilated loops of bowel. The number of pseudo-obstruction cases is dependent on how one defines the condition. It appears prudent to require radiographic abnormalities consistent with obstruction on a plain film of the abdomen for the diagnosis. More recently, studies have focused on the gastrointestinal manometric abnormalities of the stomach and small intestine in chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction during fasting and fed states; however, sensitivity and specificity of these abnormalities are not well defined. Treatment is aimed at limiting symptoms and maintaining adequate nutrition. Prokinetic agents should be tried in an attempt to restore normal intestinal propulsion. However, their overall efficacy appears to be variable. It is still too premature to consider intestinal pacing or small bowel transplantation in this condition. Surgical approaches to chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction should be limited to patients refractory to medical therapy, and even then, an approach focused on the patient's primary presenting symptoms should be considered.
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PMID:Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction. 854 80

Children and adolescents with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) present unique challenges to physicians and all health-care providers. The most important aspect is that children are not small adults. They are characterized by a highly dynamic state of growth and physical change as well as a constant alteration in psychological status. It will not be difficult to recognize IBD, even in children, when it presents with classical symptoms such as bloody diarrhoea, abdominal pain and weight loss. However, some children will present with abdominal pain and depression. Not infrequently these children are diagnosed as being depressed and are seen and treated by psychologists and psychiatrists for different periods of time. In addition, several children will be initially diagnosed as having a bacterial gastroenteritis with a proven positive faecal culture. It seems to be the triggering event in these children, and if adequate therapy fails, colonoscopy is indicated. Recently, Beattie et al. showed that in children seen for chronic abdominal pain simple routine blood tests including full blood count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate are almost always abnormal in children with IBD. But most importantly, growth retardation is common in children with IBD and is more often found in Crohn's disease (CD) than in ulcerative colitis (UC). Faltering growth is a sign of a catabolic situation. Therefore, it is essential to follow the growth of children at the beginning and during treatment of IBD. Growth retardation can be the first symptom of IBD and is often already present before other symptoms of IBD become apparent. Rarely, extra-intestinal manifestations, particularly arthritis, can be the first and sometimes only initial symptom for months to years in children with IBD. About 2% of all patients with IBD present before the age of 10 years, but 30% present between the age of 10 and 19 years. A significant proportion of young patients with IBD will develop the disease just prior to or during puberty. Adolescent growth is characterized by rapid accumulation of lean body mass and any inflammatory disease occurring at this time is likely to have a major impact on nutritional status and growth. This rapid growth requires an appropriate increase in nutritional substrates and failure to achieve catch-up growth may ultimately lead to poor cumulative growth over time. Most of the growth retardation is seen in children with CD, approximately 30%. However, also in UC 15% will show a reduction in growth. The higher percentage in CD could be due to the disease itself or to the relative subtlety of the intestinal manifestations of CD, mainly abdominal pain and general malaise. Not only growth, but also delayed puberty, is a sign of an ongoing disease that most likely needs more intensive treatment. It has been shown that the severity of disease activity plays a more important role in the occurrence of growth retardation than steroid treatment. Therefore in paediatrics it is important to state that growth retardation during medical treatment equals undertreatment. In contrast to adults, the potential benefit of nutritional therapy should be seriously considered in addition to aggressive medical therapy including steroids and other immunosuppressive agents such as azathioprine. The most convincing evidence that malnutrition is primarily responsible for growth failure is based on depletion studies. The malnutrition itself is caused by ongoing inflammation and loss of appetite. Recommendations for nutritional therapy include an increase in energy and protein intake to 150% of recommended daily allowances for height and age. Some studies have shown the benefit of nocturnal nasogastric infusion as supplements of daily intake. Importantly, nutritional support has been shown to be as effective as steroids in achieving remission of disease in children. Furthermore, no significant differences have been shown in studies using elemental versus polymeric diets.
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PMID:Problems in diagnosis of IBD in children. 905 Mar 26

An assessment of gynecological morbidity among 385 married mothers of children 6-12 months of age from a district in South India's Karnataka State revealed a high burden of reproductive tract infections. Research methods included clinical examination, laboratory tests, and self-reports. A total of 152 women reported 226 gynecological complaints to a social worker, primarily vaginal discharge with bad odor and itching or irritation (22%), lower abdominal pain or vaginal discharge with fever (16%), and menstrual bleeding disorders or pain (15%). Under more extensive probing by a gynecologist, the proportion of women reporting menstrual problems rose to 62%. At medical examination, 36% of women had at least one clinically diagnosed reproductive tract infection, including pelvic inflammatory disease (11%), cervical ectopy (10%), and genital prolapse (3%). More than half had endogenous infections. The two most common infections, identified by laboratory tests, were bacterial vaginosis (18%) and mucopurulent cervicitis (37%). Sexually transmitted diseases, primarily trichomonal vaginalis, were diagnosed in 10%. Women residing in town, those with 6 or more years of schooling, and women with 4 or more pregnancies were significantly more likely to report menstrual problems. Laboratory-detected vaginosis was significantly higher among urban and sterilized women. There were no significant associations between demographic/socioeconomic status variables and the other reproductive health problems analyzed. Finally, severe anemia was present in 17% and chronic energy deficiency in 12%. The combination of widespread undernutrition/malnutrition and reproductive tract infections revealed in this study indicates an urgent need to take steps to implement the reproductive health strategy outlined at the 1994 Cairo Conference in South India.
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PMID:Levels and determinants of gynecological morbidity in a district of south India. 921 30

Human echinostomiasis, endemic to southeast Asia and the Far East, is a food-borne, intestinal, zoonotic parasitosis attributed to at least 16 species of digenean trematodes transmitted by snails. Two separate life cycles of echinostomes, human and sylvatic, efficiently operate in endemic areas. Clinical symptoms of echinostomiasis include abdominal pain, violent watery diarrhea, and anorexia. The disease occurs focally and transmission is linked to fresh or brackish water habitats. Infections are associated with common sociocultural practices of eating raw or insufficiently cooked mollusks, fish, crustaceans, and amphibians, promiscuous defecation, and the use of night soil (human excrement collected from latrines) for fertilization of fish ponds. The prevalence of infection ranges from 44% in the Philippines to 5% in mainland China, and from 50% in northern Thailand to 9% in Korea. Although the patterns of other food-borne trematodiases have changed in Asia following changes in habits, cultural practices, health education, industrialization, and environmental alteration, human echinostomiasis remains a health problem. The disease is most prevalent in remote rural places among low-wage earners and in women of child bearing age. Echinostomiasis is aggravated by socioeconomic factors such as poverty, malnutrition, an explosively growing free-food market, a lack of supervised food inspection, poor or insufficient sanitation, other helminthiases, and declining economic conditions. Furthermore, World Health Organization control programs implemented for other food-borne helminthiases and sustained in endemic areas are not fully successful for echinostomiasis because these parasites display extremely broad specificity for the second intermediate host and are capable of completing the life cycle without involvement of the human host.
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PMID:Echinostomiasis: a common but forgotten food-borne disease. 957 99

We describe a case of sudden death caused by a rare complication of Crohn's disease. A 29-year-old man with Crohn's disease who had not taken medications regularly complained of nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain for 2 days, and then died suddenly. Autopsy revealed protruding intestinal loops filled with gas, internal fistulas between fused loops of the terminal ileum, and complete obstruction of the fistulous tract. The histologic findings of transmural inflammation consisting of lymphocytic infiltration, accumulation of partially hyalinized collagen, and fibrosis in the skip areas from the ileum to the cecum were compatible with Crohn's disease. Furthermore, marked emaciation, atrophic change of the heart muscle, and diffuse fatty change of the liver were found. Although the patient died of obstructive ileus caused by a stricture produced by progression of Crohn's disease, he was severely affected by malnutrition which may have been fatal. This case not only illustrates that Crohn's disease can cause obstructive ileus and sudden death, but also makes the forensic pathologist realize the importance of suspecting the presence of an active inflammatory bowel disease in a patient with internal fistulas or malnutrition.
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PMID:Sudden death of a patient with Crohn's disease. 978 Jun 67

Cryptosporidium was detected in 21 (3.8%) individual stool samples collected from 553 pediatric patients hospitalized in our center employing a Telemann concentration technique (formalin-ether-centrifugation) and stained with the modified Kinyoun method. The mean age of populations with Cryptosporidiosis (16 boys and 5 girls) was 11 months; 15 months for girls and 6.5 for boys. Ages of 81% of them were less than 19 months. Seventy-six per cent of patients lived on the outskirts of Buenos Aires and 71% lacked pretreated running water at home. In 62% of the cases parasitological diagnoses coincided with warm seasons. At diagnosis mucous (63%) or watery (36%) diarrhea was presented in 90% of the patients with a median of 5 (3-8) bowel movements per day. Fever was presented in 66% of patients while abdominal pain and vomits in 60% and 52%, respectively. The median time from hospitalization up to parasitologic diagnosis was 20 days. Concomitant diseases observed were malnutrition, acute leukemia, bronchiolitis, HIV infection, anemia, celiac disease, myelofibrosis, vitelline sac tumor, neutropenia, osteosarcoma and dehydration. Cryptosporidiosis in our environment seems to occur more frequently in children younger than 18 months of age; who present diarrhea; are immunodeficient; come from a low socioeconomical background; and who live in poor sanitary conditions with no potable running water.
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PMID:Cryptosporidiosis in pediatric patients. 983 Jul 36

Celiac disease is a permanent intolerance to ingested gluten that results in immunologically mediated inflammatory damage to the small-intestinal mucosa. Celiac disease is associated with both human leukocyte antigen (HLA) and non-HLA genes and with other immune disorders, notably juvenile diabetes and thyroid disease. The classic sprue syndrome of steatorrhea and malnutrition coupled with multiple deficiency states may be less common than more subtle and often monosymptomatic presentations of the disease. Diverse problems such as dental anomalies, short stature, osteopenic bone disease, lactose intolerance, infertility, and nonspecific abdominal pain among many others may be the only manifestations of celiac disease. The rate at which celiac disease is diagnosed depends on the level of suspicion for the disease. Although diagnosis relies on intestinal biopsy findings, serologic tests are useful as screening tools and as an adjunct to diagnosis. The treatment of celiac disease is lifelong avoidance of dietary gluten. Gluten-free diets are now readily achievable with appropriate professional instruction and community support. Both benign and malignant complications of celiac disease occur but these can often be avoided by early diagnosis and compliance with a gluten-free diet.
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PMID:The widening spectrum of celiac disease. 1007 17

A pregnant woman may be infected up to a 90% by intestine parasites, and it all depends on the geographical area associated to the environmental factors allowing this to be spread. The abdominal obstruction related to the pregnancy is rare due to the fact that it only happens in one out of 2,500-6,000 pregnancies. This occlusion, when given by Ascaris lumbricoides, is even more complicated due to the lack of medical literature reference, and thus being unable to make any comparisons. A 45-year old pregnant woman, with several births and multi-pregnancies presenting an acute abdomen by intestinal obstruction through out this helmint. She was pacticed an exploratory laparotomy with the evacuation of several ascaris throughout and enterostomy, and then during the 37th week, she gave birth by means of an eutocic labor work to a healthy female product weighting 2.825 kgs. The anatomopathology study of the placenta shows no alterations. The nosology of the intestinal obstruction by ascariasis during the pregnancy, and out of it, are very similar and could only be affected by late diagnosis of the pregnant woman due to anatomical and physiological changes, increasing the mother's and the fetus morbi-mortality. In Mexico, there are endemic areas where it would be convenient to identify the characteristical eggs in the mother's stool due to the fact that if an advanced pathology is not put in place, it does produce states of maternal malnutrition, anaemia, abdominal pain and low weigh product at the moments of its birth.
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PMID:[Intestinal obstruction caused by ascaris in pregnancy. Report of a case]. 1032 64

With adequate medical management the midgut carcinoid tumor generally is an indolent malignancy associated with substantial life expectancy and appreciable life quality, even in the presence of liver metastases and significant tumor burden. Abdominal complications may occur in this entity of carcinoids owing to entrapment of intestines and encasement of mesenteric vessels by mesenteric metastases and associated marked mesenteric fibrosis. This may be the cause of abdominal pain, disabling diarrhea, weight loss to the extent of malnutrition, and eventually the risk of death with acute or chronic intestinal obstruction or intestinal gangrene. Operative removal of the mesentericointestinal lesion is often indicated to prevent or treat these complications but may be technically difficult when mesenteric metastases extend in the vicinity of major vessels in the mesenteric root. At laparotomy 56 patients with advanced midgut carcinoids underwent removal of the mesenteric tumor with a method for preserving the mesenteric vessels. This was feasible by mobilizing and releasing the right colon and mesenteric root from posterior adhesions, identifying the mesenteric artery below the pancreas, and free-dissecting this artery on the tumor capsule in the mobilized mesentery. Dissection was successful even with tumors initially judged inoperable unless tumor growth completely surrounded the mesenteric vessels or extended retroperitoneally. One patient was subjected to distal intestinal artery bypass. Symptom relief was been substantial and often of long duration after mesenteric tumor removal in patients who prior to surgery often had threatening intestinal ischemia. Patients with advanced midgut carcinoids may benefit markedly from dissectional removal of mesenteric tumors, which (conceivably better than conventional wedge resection) preserves the length of the remaining intestine.
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PMID:Method for dissection of mesenteric metastases in mid-gut carcinoid tumors. 1103 14

Giardia lamblia is one of the most important causes of waterborne diarrheal disease worldwide, and giardiasis is the most common protozoan infection of the human small intestine. Symptomatic infection is characterized by diarrhea, abdominal pain, and malabsorption, leading to malnutrition and weight loss, particularly in children. The pathogen resides strictly in the lumen of the small intestine, and infection is typically not accompanied by significant mucosal inflammation. Clinical and experimental studies indicate that B cell-dependent host defenses, particularly IgA, are important for controlling and clearing Giardia infection, although B cell-independent mechanisms also contribute to this outcome. In contrast to antigiardial host defenses, much less is known about the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the clinical symptoms of giardiasis, partly because of the current lack of suitable model systems. In addition to being an important human enteric pathogen, Giardia is an interesting model organism for gaining basic insights into genetic innovations that led to evolution of eukaryotic cells, since it belongs to the earliest diverging eukaryotic lineage known. The completion of the giardial genome project will increase understanding of the basic biology of the protozoan and will help us to better understand host pathogen-interactions as a basis for developing new vaccination and therapeutic strategies.
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PMID:Microbes and microbial toxins: paradigms for microbial-mucosal interactions I. Pathophysiological aspects of enteric infections with the lumen-dwelling protozoan pathogen Giardia lamblia. 1112 91


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