Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G Coremans.
A classification of gastrointestinal motility disorders is offered based upon the type of disorder in transit (delay or acceleration), and the region of the gastrointestinal tract affected. Specific abnormalities of myoelectrical patterns are identified when possible and related to disturbances in transit in the stomach and small bowel.
The effect of Yag laser photocoagulation on the course of bleeding of gastrointestinal vascular malformations was studied in 59 patients, with a total of 482 lesions. The lesions were located in the upper gastrointestinal tract alone in 25 patients, in the lower tract alone in 31 patients and in both the lower and the upper gastrointestinal tract in three patients. In the month before laser therapy the number of bleeding episodes averaged 1.09 +/- 0.6 (SD) per patient (n = 57) and the transfusion requirements 2.4 +/- 2.6 red blood cells units per patient, while in the month after treatment the bleeding incidence averaged 0.16 +/- 0.5 and the transfusion requirements 0.21 +/- 0.8 (both p less than 0.001). Long term results were analysed considering for each patient an equally long pretreatment and follow up period. After a mean follow up period of 11.5 months (1-48 months), 17 of the 57 patients available for follow up rebled. The reduction of the bleeding rate was statistically significant at one, six, 12, and 18 months of follow up, while transfusion rate was significantly decreased at one, six, and 12 months. The results were disappointing in patients with Osler-Weber-Rendu (n = 4) and in patients with angiomas associated with Von Willebrand's disease (n = 3), who all rebled. In angiodysplasia the treatment was successful in 82% of the 49 patients. The more numerous the lesions, the less effective the reduction in bleeding rate by laser treatment was. Histological studies showed that the haemostatic effect of Yag laser photocoagulation was obtained by destruction of the lesion. Rebleeding was due to lesions missed at the first treatment, incompletely treated lesions and recurrence of new lesions. In two patients a free caecal perforation necessitated a right hemicolectomy. In both patients numerous or very large lesions had been treated in the caecum.
Studies to determine the diagnostic value of ileoscopy and biopsy are not available. In an attempt to clarify the role of this technique in the diagnosis of intestinal Crohn's disease, 110 patients with a radiological diagnosis of inflammatory disease of the terminal ileum were examined in a prospective study. Suspicion of Crohn's disease was rejected in 28 patients. In 18 patients the terminal ileum was normal, while 10 patients had lymphoid nodular hyperplasia. Endoscopic lesions with a predictive value of 0.96 were found in 25 of 48 patients with the final diagnosis of Crohn's disease. Diagnostic granulomas were only found in 4 patients, but lesions consistent with Crohn's disease were present in the pathology sections of 17 patients. It was concluded that ileoscopy with biopsy is a valuable tool in the diagnosis of inflammatory ileal disease and can provide useful information about the nature and extent of the inflammation.
A new technique of treating acute severe upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage was evaluated. The technique consisted of epinephrine injections in the bleeding lesion combined with YAG laser radiation in short pulses, applied until the bleeding vessel was completely closed. This new treatment modality was tried in 54 consecutive patients with severe upper gastrointestinal bleeding from a spurting artery, or an ulcer with a non-bleeding visible vessel in the floor of the ulcer crater at endoscopy. Permanent haemostasis was achieved in 87% of the 54 patients. Emergency surgery was needed in 13%. The mortality rate was only 10%. No complications occurred. It is concluded that this new technique of treating severe upper gastrointestinal bleeding from a spurting artery, or an ulcer with a visible vessel results in a significant improvement of the success rate (permanent haemostasis) and a marked reduction in the mortality rate.
Fifty-three children with chronic idiopathic constipation, 32 with fecal soiling and 21 without soiling, were investigated by total gastrointestinal transit time (TGITT) and anorectal manometry (ARM). TGITT and ARM were also performed, respectively, in 46 and 32 healthy subjects. Twenty-two of the 32 children with soiling were successfully managed by medical treatment and toilet training. TGITT was significantly longer in all constipated children than in normal children. Furthermore, some parameters of anorectal motility (threshold volume, amplitude of threshold inhibitory anal reflex) of the patients differed markedly from those measured in controls. Rectal compliance was significantly higher in children with fecal soiling than in children with constipation without soiling and healthy controls. In the successfully treated children, soiling disappeared, TGITT normalized, and anorectal variables changed significantly. It is concluded that TGITT is useful in assessing the degree of constipation. Electromanometry of the anorectum is of great help in the diagnosis of functional constipation by excluding aganglionosis; furthermore, it provides additional information allowing better understanding of the mechanisms involved in functional constipation in children.
An endoscopical and histological study was carried out in 114 patients, treated by 'curative' resection of the terminal ileum and part of the colon for Crohn's disease, in order to study the natural history of recurrent Crohn's disease. The recurrence rate of Crohn's disease in patients examined within one year of the operation was 72%. This figure did not differ significantly from that in patients examined one to three years or three to 10 years after surgery (79% and 77% respectively). Recurrence was located in the neoterminal ileum and at the anastomosis in 88% of the patients. Early endoscopic signs of recurrence were small aphthous ulcers in the neoterminal ileum. Ileal biopsies at this stage showed an important inflammatory cell infiltrate of the lamina propria with numerous eosinophils and fusion and blunting of the villi. More advanced lesions observed in patients examined one to three years after surgery, consisted of larger, often serpiginous ulcerations and nodular thickening of folds. In patients examined three to 10 years after the operation, the anastomosis was frequently stenosed and rigid, with large ulcers extending from the stenosis into the colon. Mucosal granulomas may be found in normal appearing mucosa as well as in the obviously inflamed mucosa surrounding the ulcers. These studies suggest that recurrence of Crohn's disease almost always develops in the first year after the operation. Significant endoscopic lesions may be present without clinical symptoms, particularly in the earlier stages of the disease.
Four patients who developed acute viral hepatitis in the course of active Crohn's disease are reported upon. Three of these patients (1 with hepatitis A and 2 with hepatitis B) had a very striking and unusual clinical remission or apparent healing on regression of the hepatitis. These observations suggest that intercurrent hepatitis may have a beneficial effect on the course of active Crohn's disease.
In a 4-year period 45 patients were admitted to our gastroenterological u nit with acute infective colitis. The endemic pathogens responsible for the colitis were Yersinia enterocolitica (46%), Campylobacter fetus jejuni (20%), common Salmonellae (13%), less virulent strains of Shigella (9%), Entamoeba hystolytica (7%) and Cytomegalovirus (4%). These microorganisms caused very severe disease in 18% of the patients, who were mostly predisposed. While Salmonella- and amoebic colitis always mimicked ulcerative colitis by the presence of diffuse lesions, the other pathogens caused focal colitis, thus necessitating differential diagnosis vis a vis Crohn's colitis. Two patients (4%) died of complications, while 93% of the patients were cured by proper antimicrobial therapy. In the same period 12 patients were admitted with an acute attack of inflammatory bowel disease due to an intercurrent infection with the same pathogens. In most of these patients clinical remission of IBD was achieved by treating the intercurrent infection. These data indicate that in the presence of an acute attack of colitis an infective etiologic agent must always be sought, and that an attack of chronic idiopathic inflammatory bowel disease may be caused by an intercurrent infection.
A trial of neodymium-yttrium-aluminum-garnet laser treatment was conducted in 152 patients with upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Laser photocoagulation was applied in 0.5- to 1-s pulses of 55-80 W power. A first part of the trial studying patients with arterial bleeding was uncontrolled. Spurting arterial bleedings could be stopped in 87% of the 23 patients with acute arterial hemorrhage. The recurrence rate after endoscopic treatment of this type of bleeding was high (55%). The operation rate of 61% was, however, lower than the operative indications amounting to 95% in patients with arterial spurters admitted previously to our department. One hundred twenty-nine patients were included in a controlled randomized trial of laser photocoagulation. In 86 patients with active, nonspurting bleeding, the laser was significantly better (p less than 0.001) at stopping the bleeding than conservative treatment in randomized controls, and there was a numerical although not significant reduction of the rate of bleeding recurrence and the necessity for surgery (both p less than 0.1). In 43 patients with fresh stigmata of bleeding (i.e., fresh clot or visible vessel) laser treatment resulted in a numerical reduction in the rate of rebleeding and in the operative indications, but the difference did not reach statistical significance. The mortality rates were not influenced in any of the groups.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
From 1972 to 1977, the authors observed 156 patients with primary esophageal motility disorders which caused such a severe degree of dysphagia that treatment by pneumatic dilatation was deemed necessary. Before dilatation, 24% of the patients presented with motility disorders that did not fit well into the two classical disease entities, diffuse esophageal spasm and achalasia (absence of peristalsis with presence of lower esophageal sphincter (LES) relaxations or presence of peristalsis with absence of LES relaxations). After treatment with pneumatic dilatation, these "intermediate" forms constituted 45% of the motor disorders. This was due mainly to the reappearance, on manometric tracings, of peristaltic contractions and of LES relaxations. Radiologic and manometric observations suggest that in many patients, this "return of peristalsis" may be an apparent change in pressure pattern rather than a real change in motility. In 6 of the 156 patients, a deterioration of the esophageal motility disorder was observed, which was characterized by the loss of peristalsis and of LES relaxations over a period of a few months or years. The frequent occurrence of intermediate types of motility disorders and the transition from diffuse spasm to achalasia suggest that achalasia and diffuse esophageal spasm are part of a spectrum of related motor disorders.
Endoscopic laser therapy (ELT) for palliation of cancer of the esophagus and the gastroesophageal junction was evaluated in 31 patients with far advanced disease. Initial technical success (94%) and initial improvement of symptoms (81%) were comparable to data reported previously. Complications were bleeding (6%), sepsis (6%), and tracheoesophageal fistula (6%). This analysis, however, addressed the impact of ELT on the remaining life of the patients. In 9 patients (29%) ELT was the only palliative alternative, and in 7 of these patients a fair functional success was achieved. In 13/21 (63%) of the patients with good initial functional result palliation could be preserved by repeated ELT until death from cachexia. Eight patients, however, were intubated in the follow-up period because of failure to keep the esophagus open. The dysphagia-free interval was only 4 weeks, and repeated ELT became progressively more difficult because of increased tumor load and increasing debility of the patient. 32% of the patients experienced ELT as more difficult than repeated dilations. Our data also suggest that duration of palliation after ELT alone lasts longer than palliation after dilation followed by ELT. Results of ELT were best in patients with recurrent cancer at the esophagogastric or esophagojejunal anastomosis.
The long-term effects of endoscopic dilation of colonic or ileo-colonic Crohn's disease strictures were analyzed. In 18 patients with a Crohn's disease-related low gastrointestinal stricture, the stenosis was dilated using through-the-scope (TTS) balloon catheters. A dilation to a diameter of 18 mm was always attempted. Treatment was successfully carried out in 16 patients, and was followed by immediate symptomatic relief in 14 patients. Long-term success was observed in nine patients. There were no complications. Balloon catheter dilation of a colonic stricture or stricture of an ileo-colonic anastomosis was found to be safe and effective. This treatment modality can be an alternative to surgery in a selected group of patients.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Crohn's disease is rarely associated with Sweet's syndrome. We report a 32-year old woman who presented with diarrhea, fever and disseminated erythematous plaques on the arms and the trunk. After colonoscopy with biopsies, Crohn's disease was diagnosed. Skin biopsy showed a dense infiltration of neutrophilic polymorphonuclear leukocytes, establishing also the diagnosis of Sweet's syndrome. Crohn's disease is one of several systemic diseases that may underlie Sweet's syndrome. Treatment with methylprednisolone resulted in a rapid improvement of both gastro-intestinal symptoms and skin lesions.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Gastro-intestinal stricture frequently is a complication in Crohn's disease and often recurs after surgical resection. Stenosis with acute inflammation can be treated by anti-inflammatory medication. A conservative approach of sclerotic strictures has been possible since the introduction of Gruentzig balloon catheters for dilating stenosis in different parts of the gastro-intestinal tract. We present a prospective follow-up study in 55 patients, on the long-term results and safety of hydrostatic balloon dilations of ileo-colonic Crohn's strictures.