Disorders of Gastrointestinal Systems and Clinical Manifestations

The field of gastrointestinal biology has been transformed by an explosion of knowledge for gastrointestinal motility, absorption, and secretion. The chapters in this book summarise the methods of molecular biology and the cell biology of gut enzymes, secreting cells and cells that respond to these enzymes. This book is a valuable reference for students, researchers and faculties of gastrointestinal motility, absorption and secretion. No other single source covers this field so comprehensively. It contains a considerable amount of detail on subjects such as gut hormones, gut malabsorption, alcohol toxicity on the stomach and methods used in physiologic study of the digestive tract. Disease conditions are discussed only to the extent that they illustrate physiologic mechanisms. It is difficult for such a comprehensive work to remain up to date for very long, considering how rapidly our knowledge of life sciences expands. This book, a comprehensive treatise on the causes, diagnosis, and management of gastrointestinal-motility disorders, consists of eighteen chapters with extensive references contained in slightly fewer than 300 pages. It achieves its goal through generally lucid writing and the overlap of information from chapter to chapter commonly observed in multi-authored works. Therefore, the reader is best advised to go through this book in a relaxed manner; this will allow them to finish it in a relatively short amount of time and appreciate the field of gastrointestinal motility, particularly current practices and research methods for solving its many riddles. All the chapters are clearly written, but the target audience seems to vary from medical students to practicing gastroenterologists. Despite these drawbacks, gastroenterologists, surgeons, and basic scientists wishing to bring their general knowledge of clinical motility disorders up to date will find this book useful.