Chronic symptoms of gastric dysfunction are common following gastric surgery, but the mechanisms underlying these have remained poorly understood. Disturbances of foregut motility are suspected to ...play a central role, however knowledge of how these abnormalities manifest and relate to symptoms requires elucidation. Emerging data suggests that abnormalities of the gastric conduction system are a common consequence of gastric surgery and may contribute to dysmotility and post-operative symptoms. This review provides a primer on the gastric conduction system. The normal physiology of the gastric conduction system and factors that influence resilience to surgery are outlined, together with focused discussion on three surgical procedures that impact post-operative gastric dysfunction: resection of the gastric pacemaker, resection or bypass of the pylorus, and vagotomy. The mechanistic pathways that underpin the clinical effects of these procedures are discussed. Future horizons are also evaluated, including newly established body surface gastric mapping techniques that provide a non-invasive method to detect changes in the gastric conduction system and relate these to symptoms in postoperative patients, with the goal of developing targeted interventions for prevention and therapy.
Enteric fever is caused by typhoidal Salmonella serovars (Typhi, Paratyphi A, Paratyphi B, and Paratyphi C). Owing to the importance of Salmonella serovars in clinics and public hygiene, reliable ...diagnostics for typhoidal serovars are crucial. This study aimed to develop a novel diagnostic tool for typhoidal Salmonella serovars and evaluate the use of human blood for clinically diagnosing enteric fever. Five genes were selected to produce specific PCR results against typhoidal Salmonella serovars based on the genes of Salmonella Typhi. Heptaplex PCR, including genetic markers of generic Salmonella, Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica, and typhoidal Salmonella serovars, was developed. Typhoidal Salmonella heptaplex PCR using genomic DNAs from 200 Salmonella strains (112 serovars) provided specifically amplified PCR products for each typhoidal Salmonella serovar. These results suggest that heptaplex PCR can sufficiently discriminate between typhoidal and nontyphoidal Salmonella serovars. Heptaplex PCR was applied to Salmonella-spiked blood cultures directly and provided diagnostic results after 12- or 13.5-h blood culture. Additionally, it demonstrated diagnostic performance with colonies recovered from a 6-h blood culture. This study provides a reliable DNA-based tool for diagnosing typhoidal Salmonella serovars that may be useful in clinical microbiology and epidemiology.
