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The association between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and laryngeal disorders has been recognized since the late 1960s. Chronic laryngeal signs and symptoms associated GERD are often referred to as reflux laryngitis or laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR). However, the cause-and-effect relationship between GERD and LPR still remains elusive..

BA, the congenital absence or destruction of intra- or extra-hepatic biliary system, affects about 5 - 10/100 000 live births. End stage liver cirrhosis developed in some BA patients later in life. As a result of liver cirrhosis, regenerative nodules may develop in cirrhotic liver including a specific type termed MRN. The clinical significance and pathological features of MRN have been discussed in some articles. However, the image features of MRN and how to differentiate them from HCC have yet to be elucidated.

Excessive activation of inflammatory mediator cascade during SAP is a major cause of distant organ injury and the high mortality. Cytokines such as TNF- alpha and IL-1 beta are released early in the development of systemic inflammatory response. This leaves a narrow therapeutic window for administration of therapeutics and delayed delivery of that anti-inflammatory therapeutics is not effective after the inflammatory mediator cascade has developed.

The stickleback fish, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is one of the most thoroughly studied organisms in the wild, and has been a particularly useful model for understanding variation in physiology, behavior, life history and morphology caused by different ecological situations in the wild.

On biological levels from molecular and genetic to developmental and morphological, and finally ending with the population level, it has proven far more complex than even imagined.

A research team from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Exeter, the University of Plymouth and the University of Iowa, have found evidence linking Bisphenol A (BPA) to diabetes and heart disease in adults.

Their research paper is to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday 17 September and it is the first time that evidence has emerged of the association between higher BPA levels and disease in adults.

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in Plymouth, UK, have carried out research that suggests the one hour of moderate exercise a day recommended to children from health experts may not be enough to tackle the rising problem of childhood obesity.

Their research has been published in the most recent issue of the journal "Archives of Diseases in Childhood."

The results come from the EarlyBird study, which has followed the development of over 200 children in Plymouth born in 1995 and 1996.

CTC (virtual colonoscopy) is a thin slice CT scan of the abdomen after adequate bowel preparation and colon insufflation in which data are reconstructed providing axial, multiplanar, and endoluminal views, in order to visualize internal colonic wall. Several studies have shown that CTC is a valuable tool to evaluate proximal colon after incomplete colonoscopy, and American Gastroenterologists Association (AGA) recognized that CTC is indicated for adults with failed colonoscopy.

SBS is a clinical condition characterized by diarrhea, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, malabsorption, and progressive malnutrition related to a wide resection of the small intestine. The most important therapeutic objectives in the management of SBS are maintenance the patient's calorie intake and nutritional status. However, some enteral nutrition (EN) products use for energy supports in order to reduce total parenteral nutrition (TPN) demand. The new treatment modalities alternate the current ones are still under research with the experimental and clinical studies.

CHICAGO (October 10, 2008) – New research published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons shows unsponsored and professional society Web sites provide significantly higher quality information about common elective surgical procedures compared with commercially sponsored Web sites. In addition, the study authors say that providing patients with technical search terms may increase the likelihood of obtaining reliable surgical information on the Web.

CHICAGO (October 10, 2008) – New research published in the October issue of Journal of the American College of Surgeons challenges the current opinion that patients in their eighties, who are often deemed "high-risk" due to their advanced age, should not undergo carotid endarterectomy – a stroke-preventing surgical procedure that clears blockages from the neck's carotid arteries.

Approximately 700,000 new and recurrent strokes occur annually in the United States, and it is estimated that 10 to 20 percent of them are related to carotid artery disease.

Researchers from the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and its collaborators have now identified for the first time a new gene that may confer susceptibility to pulmonary tuberculosis. Their findings, published October 10 in the open access journal PLoS Genetics, reported that a gene named Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8), previously shown only to recognize some factors from viruses such as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), has a probable role in human susceptibility to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections.

Scientists have found that the UK's common or garden earthworms are far more diverse than previously thought, a discovery with important consequences for agriculture.

Tobacco smuggling causes around 4,000 premature deaths a year—four times the number of deaths caused by the use of all smuggled illegal drugs put together—but the UK government is not doing enough to tackle the problem, claim experts on bmj.com today.

Professor Robert West from the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre and colleagues argue that more smokers would quit if cigarettes cost more, but at around half the price, smuggled tobacco is keeping the prices down.

Irvine, Calif. — Toxins in food often have a bad, bitter taste that makes people want to spit them out. New UC Irvine research finds that bitterness also slows the digestive process, keeping bad food in the stomach longer and increasing the chances that it will be expelled.

This second line of defense in the gut against dietary toxins also triggers the production of a hormone that makes people feel full, presumably to keep them from eating more of the toxic food.

One role for the proteins on the tongue that sense bitter tasting substances, type 2 taste receptors (T2Rs), is to limit ingestion of these substances, as a large number of natural bitter compounds are known to be toxic. T2Rs are also found in the gut, and it has been suggested that there they have a similar role to their function in the mouth (i.e., they might limit intestinal toxin absorption). Data to support this idea has now been generated in mice by Timothy Osborne and colleagues, at the University of California, Irvine.