What Are Gastro-Intestinal Complications Of Type 1 Diabetes? Gastrointestinal complications of type I diabetes mellitus are functional or organic changes that result from diabetes affecting every organ of the gastrointestinal tract. Q: How do gastrointestinal tract complications affect diabetes? A: Impaired ...
Read More »Diabetic Instability
What Is Diabetic Instability? Diabetic instability, also called brittle diabetes, is poor control of blood sugar characterized by frequent rise (hyperglycemia) and fall (hypoglycemia). These fluctuations can be life-threatening and cause unnecessary complications. Q: What are complications in diabetes? A: Complications ...
Read More »Diabetes Mellitus, Type I
What Is Type I Diabetes Mellitus? Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), also termed type 1A, is an inherited autoimmune disorder in which anti-islet autoantibodies destroy the islet cells of the pancreas that secrete insulin hormone. Type 1 diabetes mellitus was formerly ...
Read More »Liver or Hepatic Granulomatous Disease
What Is Hepatic Granulomatous Disease? Hepatic granulomatous disease is an infiltrative chronic liver disorder characterized by growth of small granulomas. Rather than being a final diagnosis, the presence of hepatic granulomas entails the need for further investigations towards identifying the ...
Read More »Autoimmune Hepatitis
What Is Autoimmune Hepatitis? Autoimmune hepatitis is an autoimmune attack against liver cells that is characterized by inflammation and results in chronic liver disease which includes low blood albumin and cirrhosis. Autoimmune hepatitis is diagnosed by detection of autoantibodies ...
Read More »Bleeding, Occult Gastrointestinal
What Is Occult Gastrointestinal Bleeding? Occult gastrointestinal bleeding is characterized by unseen or minute quantities of blood in stool. The origin of bleeding is from mucosa that lines the inside of the digestive tract at a site that must be ...
Read More »Constipation Alternating with Diarrhea
What Is Chronic Constipation Alternating With Diarrhea? Chronic constipation alternating with diarrhea is an intestinal motility disorder, or irregularity, characterized by alteration in stool formation, consistency, and evacuation which results in a bowel movement that consists of some hard or balled ...
Read More »Volvulus
What Is Volvulus? Volvulus is twisting of a loop(s) of bowel onto itself which effectively closes it thus preventing digested matter from passing and causing engorgement of the closed loop with gas and fluid. Q: How does the bowel get ...
Read More »Ulceration And Stenosis, Postbulbar Duodenal
What Is Postbulbar Duodenal Ulceration/Stenosis? Postbulbar duodenal ulceration is a chronic inflammatory disorder characterized by thickening of the intestinal lining with excoriation penetrating the muscularis mucosae (muscle layer of the intestine) associated with villous atrophy. The ulcer is well-defined. Stenosis ...
Read More »Milk Intolerance – Bovine Beta Casein Enteropathy
What Is Milk Intolerance (Bovine Beta Casein Enteropathy)? Bovine beta casein enteropathy is characterized by raised serum IgA antibodies to bovine beta casein found by blood testing and damage to mucosa of the jejunum found by biopsy. The jejunum is the second ...
Read More »Maltose Intolerance
What Is Maltose Intolerance? Maltose intolerance is an enzymopathy (enzyme failure) characterized by inability of the gut to properly break down maltose sugar molecules in food due to low maltase enzyme activity of the small intestinal lining. Q: What is ...
Read More »Lactose Intolerance
What Is Lactose Intolerance? Lactose intolerance is a well known symptom of carbohydrate malabsorption characterized by inability to properly digest lactose, the sugar in milk, due to low lactase digesting activity in the small intestine. Lactase is an enzyme produced ...
Read More »Jejunitis, Chronic Ulcerative
What Is Chronic Ulcerative Jejunitis? Chronic ulcerative jejunitis is a disease of the small intestine that is characterized by inflammation and ulceration of the mucosal lining of the jejunum. Q: How do inflammation and ulceration affect digestion in the jejunum? A: ...
Read More »Edema of the Small Intestine
What Is Small Intestinal Edema? Small intestinal edema is characterized by fluid accumulation within the intestinal mucosa so that the intestinal wall appears thick and swollen. Intestinal edema hampers peristalsis that can result in pain and gas build-up. Peristalsis is ...
Read More »Erosions in the Second Part of the Duodenum
What Are Erosions In The Second Part Of The Duodenum? Erosions in the second part of the duodenum typically are superficial excoriations (sores) in the mucosal lining that do not penetrate into the muscle layer as does an ulcer. Of ...
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