Endocrine Abstracts

The screening and monitoring of intestinal diseases still provides challenges within in vivo and clinical research. For example, patients with Crohn’s disease will typically have a biannual endoscopic examination – this invasive procedure is distressing for patients and hence its frequency is limited at the expense of sufficient monitoring of pathological progression. Modalities such as CT and MRI can image the GI tract, however, they are ionising, which nor...

About one in six hospital admissions are for a primary diagnosis of gastrointestinal (GI) disease in the UK, according to the British Society of Gastroenterology, and there is a similar incidence of disease in other developed countries. Inflammatory disease of the gut, in particular, alters the release of cytokines and gut hormones. Medication is used to manage GI diseases and endoscopies help visually monitor its progression. However, this procedure is invasive and causes dis...

The term Leaky Gut Syndrome (LGS) describes a collection of a range of symptoms, including abdominal pain, bloating, recurring diarrhoea, bloody stools and weight loss, when a diagnosis has not been, or cannot be, made. It can be associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), celiac disease, chemotherapy and radiation therapies, and endocrine conditions including obesity and diabetes. The common underlying features of LGS are gut inflammation and an increase in gastrointest...

The gut plays an important role in energy homeostasis, and gut function is under intensive neuroendocrine control. The non-invasive imaging techniques contrast enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) imaging and super resolution ultrasound (SRUS) have the potential visualise the gut and provide novel insight into its structure and function. We aimed to demonstrate that changes in duodenal villi structure can be monitored using CEUS and SRUS, providing an insight into the structural of the ...