SummaryProton‐pump inhibitor failure has become a common clinical dilemma in gastrointestinal clinics and has been increasingly encountered at the primary care level as well. Underlying mechanisms are diverse and may overlap. Most patients who have proton‐pump inhibitor failure are likely to originate from the non‐erosive reflux disease phenotype. Currently, available diagnostic modalities provide limited clues to the exact underlying cause. Treatment relies primarily on escalating dosing of proton‐pump inhibitors. However, new insights into the pathophysiology of proton‐pump inhibitor failure are likely to provide alternative therapeutic options.

Crohn's disease (CD) is diagnosed from information obtained clinically, pathologically, and radiologically. One important pathologic finding is a granuloma, which is helpful when a positive diagnosis of CD will affect treatment. Whether the presence of a granuloma has any clinical implication is not clear. We conducted a retrospective study to determine whether a granuloma found on a biopsy sample is associated with disease severity, fistulizing or perianal disease, frequent relapses, and extraintestinal manifestations. Eighty-two patients were identified who had a biopsy or bowel resection for CD between 1990 and 1994 at a tertiary referral center; 21 (25.6%) had a granuloma. This group was compared with a group of 61 patients without a granuloma. Forty-five percent were male (n = 37), mean age at diagnosis was 42.6 years (median, 39.5 years), mean disease duration at presentation was 8.8 years (median, 4.8 years), and mean follow-up duration was 2 years (range, 1 day to 10.2 years). No significant differences were demonstrated between the two groups by the Fisher exact test with regard to fistulizing or perianal disease, oral aphthous ulcers, disease severity, axial or peripheral arthralgia, episcleritis, anterior uveitis, erythema nodosum, or pyoderma gangrenosum.

SUMMARY BackgroundGastro-oesophageal reflux disease symptoms are most commonly reported postprandially, suggesting that some diet components are likely to induce symptoms more than others.

Patients with FH demonstrate increased reports of chest pain and somatization, an alteration in autonomic function but lack a uniform increase in chemoreceptor sensitivity to acid as compared to those with NERD+. This suggests that while FH patients harbor clinical traits of a functional bowel disorder, hypersensitivity to acid is not a general phenomenon.

Crohn's disease patients do not have an increased risk for developing early atherosclerosis.

Lymphocytic gastritis (LG) is associated with helicobacter pylori (Hp) and celiac disease (CD). We aimed to clarify the relationship between Hp infection and CD by defining a unique histopathology profile of LG in these two diseases. Forty patients who underwent upper endoscopy were divided into four groups: eight controls, ten active CD patients without Hp, twelve CD negative with Hp, and ten active CD with Hp infection. Antral samples were assessed by immunohistochemical staining for CD20, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD57, CNA42, and Ki67 for lymphoid aggregates, intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) number, density of lamina propria (LP) lymphocytes, and inflammatory glandular involvement. Only IELs positive for CD3 and CD8 were increased significantly in CD patients with or without Hp infection. Hp did not contribute to the number of CD8 IELs. In complicated cases with Hp and suspicious for CD, the number of CD8+ IELs hints toward a CD rather than Hp infection.

SUMMARY BackgroundStudies have demonstrated that patients with Barrett's oesophagus have the highest oesophageal acid exposure profile, followed by erosive oesophagitis and non-erosive reflux disease patients, but the exact extent of overlap remains unknown.

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