Enteritis is inflammation of the small intestine. It is most commonly caused by food or drink contaminated with pathogenic microbes, such as Serratia, but may have other causes such as NSAIDs, radiation therapy as well as autoimmune conditions like Crohn's disease and celiac disease. Symptoms include abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, dehydration, and fever. Related diseases of the gastrointestinal system include inflammation of the stomach and large intestine.
Portal hypertension is defined as increased portal venous pressure, with a hepatic venous pressure gradient greater than 5 mmHg. Normal portal pressure is 1-4mmHg; clinically insignificant portal hypertension is present at portal pressures 5-9mmHg; clinically significant portal hypertension is present at portal pressures greater than 10mmHg. The portal vein and its branches supply most of the blood and nutrients from the intestine to the liver.
Interstitial lung disease (ILD), or diffuse parenchymal lung disease (DPLD), is a group of respiratory diseases affecting the interstitium and space around the alveoli of the lungs. It concerns alveolar epithelium, pulmonary capillary endothelium, basement membrane, and perivascular and perilymphatic tissues. It may occur when an injury to the lungs triggers an abnormal healing response. Ordinarily, the body generates just the right amount of tissue to repair damage, but in interstitial lung disease, the repair process is disrupted, and the tissue around the air sacs (alveoli) becomes scarred and thickened. This makes it more difficult for oxygen to pass into the bloodstream. The disease presents itself with the following symptoms: shortness of breath, nonproductive coughing, fatigue, and weight loss, which tend to develop slowly, over several months. The average rate of survival for someone with this disease is between three and five years. The term ILD is used to distinguish these diseases from obstructive airways diseases.
Intestinal malrotation is a congenital anomaly of rotation of the midgut. It occurs during the first trimester as the fetal gut undergoes a complex series of growth and development. Malrotation can lead to a dangerous complication called volvulus. Malrotation can refer to a spectrum of abnormal intestinal positioning, often including:
Liver biopsy is the biopsy from the liver. It is a medical test that is done to aid diagnosis of liver disease, to assess the severity of known liver disease, and to monitor the progress of treatment.
Cholestasis is a condition where the flow of bile from the liver to the duodenum is impaired. The two basic distinctions are:
Mediastinitis is inflammation of the tissues in the mid-chest, or mediastinum. It can be either acute or chronic. It is thought to be due to four different etiologies:
Retroperitoneal fibrosis or Ormond's disease is a disease featuring the proliferation of fibrous tissue in the retroperitoneum, the compartment of the body containing the kidneys, aorta, renal tract, and various other structures. It may present with lower back pain, kidney failure, hypertension, deep vein thrombosis, and other obstructive symptoms. It is named after John Kelso Ormond, who rediscovered the condition in 1948.
Intestinal pseudo-obstruction (IPO) is a clinical syndrome caused by severe impairment in the ability of the intestines to push food through. It is characterized by the signs and symptoms of intestinal obstruction without any lesion in the intestinal lumen. Clinical features mimic those seen with mechanical intestinal obstructions and can include abdominal pain, nausea, abdominal distension, vomiting, dysphagia and constipation depending upon the part of the gastrointestinal tract involved.
A bowel resection or enterectomy is a surgical procedure in which a part of an intestine (bowel) is removed, from either the small intestine or large intestine. Often the word enterectomy is reserved for the sense of small bowel resection, in distinction from colectomy, which covers the sense of large bowel resection. Bowel resection may be performed to treat gastrointestinal cancer, bowel ischemia, necrosis, or obstruction due to scar tissue, volvulus, and hernias. Some patients require ileostomy or colostomy after this procedure as alternative means of excretion. Complications of the procedure may include anastomotic leak or dehiscence, hernias, or adhesions causing partial or complete bowel obstruction. Depending on which part and how much of the intestines are removed, there may be digestive and metabolic challenges afterward, such as short bowel syndrome.
Autoimmune Pancreatitis (AIP) is an increasingly recognized type of chronic pancreatitis that can be difficult to distinguish from pancreatic carcinoma but which responds to treatment with corticosteroids, particularly prednisone. Although autoimmune pancreatitis is quite rare, it constitutes an important clinical problem for both patients and their clinicians: the disease commonly presents itself as a tumorous mass which is diagnostically indistinguishable from pancreatic cancer, a disease that is much more common in addition to being very dangerous. Hence, some patients undergo pancreatic surgery, which is associated to substantial mortality and morbidity, out of the fear by patients and clinicians to undertreat a malignancy. However, surgery is not a good treatment for this condition as AIP responds well to immunosuppressive treatment. There are two categories of AIP: Type 1 and Type 2, each with distinct clinical profiles.
Bowel infarction or gangrenous bowel represents an irreversible injury to the intestine resulting from insufficient blood flow. It is considered a medical emergency because it can quickly result in life-threatening infection and death. Any cause of bowel ischemia, the earlier reversible form of injury, may ultimately lead to infarction if uncorrected. The causes of bowel ischemia or infarction include primary vascular causes and other causes of bowel obstruction.
Eosinophilic gastroenteritis is a rare and heterogeneous condition characterized by patchy or diffuse eosinophilic infiltration of gastrointestinal (GI) tissue, first described by Kaijser in 1937. Presentation may vary depending on location as well as depth and extent of bowel wall involvement and usually runs a chronic relapsing course. It can be classified into mucosal, muscular and serosal types based on the depth of involvement. Any part of the GI tract can be affected, and isolated biliary tract involvement has also been reported. The stomach is the organ most commonly affected, followed by the small intestine and the colon.
Intestinal ischemia is a medical condition in which injury to the large or small intestine occurs due to not enough blood supply. It can come on suddenly, known as acute intestinal ischemia, or gradually, known as chronic intestinal ischemia. The acute form of the disease often presents with sudden severe abdominal pain and is associated with a high risk of death. The chronic form typically presents more gradually with abdominal pain after eating, unintentional weight loss, vomiting, and fear of eating.
SeHCAT is a drug used in a clinical test to diagnose bile acid malabsorption.
Secondary sclerosing cholangitis (SSC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease. SSC is a sclerosing cholangitis with a known cause. Alternatively, if no cause can be identified, then primary sclerosing cholangitis is diagnosed. SSC is an aggressive and rare disease with complex and multiple causes. It is characterized by inflammation, fibrosis, destruction of the biliary tree and biliary cirrhosis. It can be treated with minor interventions such as continued antibiotic use and monitoring, or in more serious cases, laparoscopic surgery intervention, and possibly a liver transplant.
Acquired generalized lipodystrophy is a rare skin condition that appears during childhood or adolescence, characterized by fat loss affecting large areas of the body, particularly the face, arms, and legs. There are 4 types of lipodystrophy based on its onset and areas affected: acquired or inherited, and generalized or partial. Both acquired or inherited lipodystrophy present as loss of adipose tissues, in the absence of nutritional deprivation. The near-total loss of subcutaneous adipose tissue is termed generalized lipodystrophy while the selective loss of adipose tissues is denoted as partial lipodystrophy. Thus, as the name suggests, AGL is a near-total deficiency of adipose tissues in the body that is developed later in life. It is an extremely rare disease that only about 100 cases are reported worldwide. There are three main etiologies of AGL suspected: autoimmune, panniculitis-associated, or idiopathic. After its onset, the disease progresses over a few days, weeks, months, or even in years. Clinical presentations of AGL are similar to other lipodystrophies, including metabolic complications and hypoleptinemia. Treatments are also similar and mainly supportive for symptomatic alleviation. Although HIV- or drug-induced lipodystrophy are a type of acquired lipodystrophy, its origin is very specific and distinct hence is usually not discussed with AGL.
Waldmann disease, also known as Primary Intestinal Lymphangiectasia (PIL), is a rare disease characterized by enlargement of the lymph vessels supplying the lamina propria of the small intestine. Although its prevalence is unknown, it being classified as a "rare disease" means that less than 200,000 of the population of the United States are affected by this condition and its subtypes and there have been approximately 50 reported cases of adult-onset PIL since 1961.
Bile acid malabsorption (BAM), known also as bile acid diarrhea, is a cause of several gut-related problems, the main one being chronic diarrhea. It has also been called bile acid-induced diarrhea, cholerheic or choleretic enteropathy, bile salt diarrhea or bile salt malabsorption. It can result from malabsorption secondary to gastrointestinal disease, or be a primary disorder, associated with excessive bile acid production. Treatment with bile acid sequestrants is often effective. It is recognised as a disability in the United Kingdom under the Equality Act 2010
IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD), formerly known as IgG4-related systemic disease, is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by tissue infiltration with lymphocytes and IgG4-secreting plasma cells, various degrees of fibrosis (scarring) and a usually prompt response to oral steroids. In approximately 51–70% of people with this disease, serum IgG4 concentrations are elevated during an acute phase.
