title: Diagnosis and management of small intestinal diseases.
abstract: Advances in the diagnosis and management of small bowel diseases are the subject of this review. Topics covered include improving the specificity of breath tests for bacterial overgrowth; small bowel enteroscopy; early diagnosis of mesenteric ischemia; the use of polymerase chain reaction for diagnosing central nervous system involvement in Whipple's disease; progress in defining the cause and pathogenesis of chronic idiopathic intestinal pseudoobstruction and the Peutz-Jeghers syndrome; defining the role of gut barrier function in health and disease; the therapeutic role for bile acid-binding resins in diarrhea after refeeding in critically ill patients; use of genetic techniques and topical steroid therapy in treating graft-versus-host disease; and the beneficial effects of combination hormonal therapy in occult gastrointestinal blood loss resulting from angiodysplasia.
authors.affiliation: Washington University School of Medicine, Campus Box 8124, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Prakash
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Levin