Our results demonstrate a very high incidence rate for childhood IBD and in particular UC in Finland. Furthermore, a rapid increase took place nationwide in the incidence of both CD and UC during the past two decades.

Chronic alcohol administration to baboons results in perivenular lesions in the liver. To study possible mechanisms, the effect of ethanol on splanchnic oxygen consumption was measured. Acute ethanol administration increased splanchnic oxygen consumption in the control baboons, but the consequences of this effect on oxygenation of the perivenular zones were offset by a concomitant rise in blood flow, resulting in unchanged hepatic venous oxygen tensions. In alcohol-fed baboons, splanchnic oxygen consumption was not increased, either in the withdrawal state or after ethanol infusion. To study the magnitude of the shift in redox state induced by ethanol in the perivenular zones, we compared the effects of ethanol on the lactate/pyruvate ratio in hepatic venous blood (an approximation of that in perivenular hepatocytes) with the ratio in total liver. Prior to ethanol infusion, the lactate and pyruvate were the same in liver and in hepatic venous blood. By contrast, in all baboons, ethanol produced a much greater rise in the lactate/pyruvate ratio and decreased pyruvate more in hepatic venous blood than in total liver. Moreover, in isolated rat hepatocytes, the ethanol-induced redox shift was markedly exaggerated by oxygen tensions similar to those found in centrolobular zones. This suggests that the normally low oxygen tensions existing in perivenular zones exaggerate the ethanol-induced redox shift, a change which may contribute to the exacerbation of the damage in the perivenular area of the hepatic lobule.

Erythromycins often cause gastrointestinal side-effects due to an increase in motility or to change in the intestinal bacterial flora. In order to evaluate the effect of erythromycin on gastrointestinal motility. 11 healthy volunteers were given placebo, erythromycin stearate (ES) 1000 mg or a therapeutically equivalent single dose of erythromycin acistrate (EA.2'-acetyl erythromycin stearate) 800 mg in a double-blind trial. The oro-caecal transit time was measured using the hydrogen breath test with lactulose as the substrate. The transit time was estimated from the H2-peak (ppm) in end-expiratory breath by two methods, t1 representing the "front" and t2 the "bulk" of lactulose reaching the colon. t1 was 51 min in the placebo group, 38 min in the EA and 31 min in the ES group (p less than 0.05, ES vs placebo). t2 was 74 min, 64 min, and 46 min, respectively (p less than 0.05, ES vs placebo). The difference between EA and ES was also significant. Six subjects in the ES group but none in the EA group recorded adverse gastrointestinal effects attributable to medication. It was concluded that erythromycin shortens the oro-caecal transit time in man and that EA effects the transit time slightly less than ES.

No abstract