Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J M Nightingale.
Two elderly patients who presented with gradually progressive dysphagia are described. Investigations excluded an intraluminal obstruction and showed extrinsic compression of the oesophagus by an aneurysmal aorta. Surgery was not performed and they were successfully managed with a liquid diet.
There are two common types of adult patient with a short bowel, those with jejunum in continuity with a functioning colon and those with a jejunostomy. Both groups have potential problems of undernutrition, but this is a greater problem in those without a colon, as they do not derive energy from anaerobic bacterial fermentation of carbohydrate to short chain fatty acids in the colon. Patients with a jejunostomy have major problems of dehydration, sodium and magnesium depletion all due to a large volume of stomal output. Both types of patient have lost at least 60 cm of terminal ileum and so will become deficient of vitamin B(12). Both groups have a high prevalence of gallstones (45%) resulting from periods of biliary stasis. Patients with a retained colon have a 25% chance of developing calcium oxalate renal stones and they may have problems with D(-) lactic acidosis. The survival of patients with a short bowel, even if they need long-term parenteral nutrition, is good.
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BACKGROUND & AIMS: The detection, prevention and treatment of undernutrition in hospitals is often poor. This study assesses the knowledge about undernutrition of staff in a UK teaching hospital. METHODS: Twenty nine doctors, 65 final year medical students, 45 nurses, 11 dietitians, and 11 pharmacists anonymously completed a questionnaire of 20 multiple choice questions. One of five possible answers was considered correct. Twelve questions were about adult nutritional assessment and requirements, five about oral/enteral nutrition and three about parenteral nutrition. RESULTS: Dietitians scored significantly more (median 16) than the other groups (doctors: seven, medical students: eight, nurses: seven and pharmacists: nine) (P < 0.0001). Medical students scored more than doctors (P < 0.001). Examples of areas in which knowledge could be improved are: 67% respondents thought the prevalence of hospital undernutrition to be less than 30%. While 91% of respondents correctly chose a well 70 kg man to need about 2000 kcal/day, only 23% knew that approximately the same amount was needed for a febrile post-operative patient. Sixteen percent knew antibiotic treatment to be the most common reason for enteral feeding-related diarrhoea. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge about the assessment and management of undernutrition among doctors, medical students, nurses and pharmacists was poor. This questionnaire provides a framework for teaching and auditing the effectiveness of an educational program.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine if there is an abnormality of circulating gastrointestinal hormones in patients with severe idiopathic constipation. METHODS: Twelve patients, all female (median age 34 yr) and 12 healthy controls (eight female, median age 32 yr) were studied. A radioisotope-labeled solid/liquid meal was ingested, and the serum hormone response, as well as the relationship between serum hormones and rates of gastric emptying and small intestinal transit, were studied for 180 min postprandially. RESULTS: Somatostatin levels were higher in patients with constipation (basal level, controls vs patients, 31 vs 57 pmol/L, p < 0.05, median values; peak level, 48 vs 60, p < 0.05). Patients showed a significantly lower somatostatin integrated incremental meal response (2182 vs 104, p < 0.05). No correlation was found between the somatostatin levels and rates of upper gastrointestinal transit in patients. Pancreatic glucagon was significantly decreased (p=0.04). Enteroglucagon levels were significantly lower (p > 0.05) in patients between 30 and 60 min after the meal. The peak found after the meal in normal subjects was absent. Basal levels of pancreatic glucagon correlated with small bowel transit by two different measures: head of meal (r=0.69, p=0.03) and cecal filling at the time of 50% gastric emptying (r=0.84, p=0.002). No significant differences between the two groups could be found for basal and peak levels at different times and integrated incremental response to the meal for insulin, gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), cholecystokinin (CCK), gastrin, pancreatic polypeptide (PP), motilin, neurotensin, and peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY). CONCLUSION: Patients with severe idiopathic constipation have specific abnormalities of circulating gut hormones that most likely play a role in gastrointestinal motility and that may be of pathophysiological significance.
BACKGROUND: Short bowel patients with a jejunostomy have large volume stomal outputs, which may in part be due to rapid gastric emptying of liquid. Short bowel patients with a preserved colon do not have such a high stool output and gastric emptying of liquid is normal. AIMS: To determine if differences in the gastric emptying rate between short bowel patients with and without a colon can be related to gastrointestinal hormone changes after a meal. SUBJECTS: Seven short bowel patients with no remaining colon (jejunal length 30-160 cm) and six with jejunum in continuity with a colon (jejunal length 25-75 cm), and 12 normal subjects. METHODS: The subjects all consumed a 640 kcal meal; blood samples were taken for 180 minutes for measurement of gastrointestinal hormones. RESULTS: Patients with a colon had high fasting peptide YY values (median 71 pmol/l with a colon; 11 pmol/l normal subjects, p < 0.005) with a normal postprandial rise, but those without a colon had a low fasting (median 7 pmol/l, p = 0.076) and a reduced postprandial peptide YY response (p < 0.050). Motilin values were high in some patients without a colon. In both patient groups fasting and postprandial gastrin and cholecystokinin values were high while neurotensin values were low. There were no differences between patient groups and normal subjects in enteroglucagon, pancreatic polypeptide, or somatostatin values. CONCLUSIONS: Low peptide YY values in short bowel patients without a colon may cause rapid gastric emptying of liquid. High values of peptide YY in short bowel patients with a retained colon may slow gastric emptying of liquid and contribute to the "colonic brake'.
Malnutrition in hospital is often unrecognized. A nutrition team aims to teach simple methods of detecting malnutrition. On a single day all medical in-patients underwent a nutritional assessment. Eighty-four patients (43 men), median age 71 years (range 28-97), were assessed. The most common diagnoses were cardiac disease (26), stroke/dementia (12), non-malignant lung disease (9) and malignancy (6). A weight loss of more than 10% (%WL) was found in 17/65 (26%) and a body mass index (BMI) of less than 19 kg/m2 in 13/69 (19%). A mid-arm muscle circumference (MAMC) less than the fifth percentile occurred in 16/83 (19%) patients. Percentage weight loss alone detected seven patients of whom four were overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2), BMI alone detected three patients, and MAMC alone eight patients of whom three could not be weighed and three had fluid retention. There was fluid retention in 35/84 (42%) patients of whom nine were malnourished (six detected by BMI and/or %WL, and three by MAMC alone). All three measurements were made in 64 patients, six (9%) of whom were detected as malnourished by all three methods. Combining the three measurements 29/84 (35%) of patients were malnourished and only 28% of these patients had been assessed by a dietitian. BMI and %WL detect most patients but fluid retention may limit their accuracy. MAMC is useful in those who cannot be weighed or who have fluid retention.
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OBJECTIVE: The normal adult human small intestinal length, measured surgically or at autopsy from the duodeno-jejunal flexure, ranges from 275 to 850 cm. The length is generally shorter in women than in men. Patients with a short bowel have often had relatively little bowel resected and the majority of patients are women. We aimed to determine whether patients with a short bowel had a short small intestinal length before any resections. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In 11 patients (six men and five women) with Crohn's disease and less than 200 cm residual small intestine, both the residual length of small intestine and the amount resected were measured. RESULTS: Patients had a median of four resections (range 1-5). The median length of small bowel resected was 120 cm (range 60-165 cm) and the medium length of small bowel remaining was 125 cm (range 90-185 cm). Thus, the calculated median original small intestinal length was 240 cm (range 205-315 cm). CONCLUSION: Although there may have been some bowel shortening as a result of Crohn's disease, the original small intestinal length before any resections was short. It is therefore more important, after performing a bowel resection, to measure the remaining than the resected bowel length. Patients with Crohn's disease and a short bowel may have had a short but 'normal' small intestinal length before any bowel was resected.
Patients with a short bowel have usually had a bowel resection for Crohn's disease. Two types of short-bowel patient can be distinguished: those with a jejunostomy and those with their jejunum anastomosed to a functioning colon. Both types of patient have problems with macronutrient absorption, although those with a colon experience fewer problems because some energy from unabsorbed carbohydrate is salvaged in the colon. Patients with a jejunostomy have problems with large stomal losses of water, sodium and magnesium, whereas those with a jejuno-colic anastomosis rarely have problems with water and electrolyte absorption. Patients with a jejunostomy 100-200 cm from the duodeno-jejunal flexure ('absorbers') usually absorb more from the diet than they pass through the stoma and therefore require oral electrolyte or nutrient supplements. Those with a residual jejunal length of less than 100 cm usually secrete more from the stoma than they take in orally ('secretors') and therefore require long-term parenteral fluid or nutrient supplements. A high output resulting from a jejunostomy is treated by reducing the oral intake of hypotonic fluid, administering a sipped glucose-saline solution and, often, by giving drugs that reduce intestinal motility (most effective in absorbers) or gastrointestinal secretions (most effective in secretors). Gallstones are common both in short-bowel patients with and in those without a colon (45%), and calcium oxalate renal stones occur in the former (25%). However, it is now possible to provide adequate nutrition and fluid supplements for most patients with a short bowel, and the prospects for the rehabilitation of such patients are good.
Twenty-four fungal feeding-line infections occurred in 17 patients during 1984-1992. Thirteen were receiving long-term home parenteral feeding and, in them, the first infection occurred after a median of 30 months (range 1-120) continuous feeding with a line that had been in situ for a median of 20 months (range 1-37). Four were receiving short-term feeding through a line that had been inserted 1-2 months previously. At the time of the first infection all patients were febrile and most were anaemic (15/16), however a leucocytosis was rare (three of 16). The fungi isolated were Candida albicans(6), Candida parapsilosis(5), Candida glabrata(2), Candida guillermondii(2) and other species (2). In 16 patients, the feeding-line was removed at the time of the first infection and no other treatment was given, and no other complications occurred in eight (50%) of these. In 11, the line was reinserted a median of 7 days after removal (range 1-11). Four patients (24%) developed a Candida infection of the eye 1-8 weeks after the diagnosis, uveitis (2) and endophthalmitis (2) which, in one patient, led to complete blindness in one eye. Two patients had recurrent infections which began within a month of dental therapy. In one, the infections stopped after dental extractions and, in the other, after a dental clearance. An ophthalmoscopic examination should be performed in all patients with a fungal feeding-line infection. Recurrent candidal infections may have a dental origin.
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Many patients with severe idiopathic constipation complain of upper gastrointestinal symptoms, and these often persist after subtotal colectomy. To determine if there is a disturbance of upper gastrointestinal motility in this condition, we have studied gastric emptying for solids (111In-containing pancake) and liquids (99mTc-containing orange juice) for a longer period after a meal (6 hr) than in previously reported gastric emptying studies. Small bowel transit for solids was also measured. All patients had emptied their colon the day before the study. Twelve women (mean age 36 years) with a bowel frequency of less than once per week, proven slow intestinal transit, and a normal diameter colon were studied. Twelve healthy controls (eight female and four male, mean age 33) were also studied. As a group the constipated patients demonstrated no statistically significant delay in emptying during the first 3 hr, although the emptying rate for three of 12 individuals fell outside the normal range. However, at 6 hr after ingestion of the meal, six of 10 patients had residual gastric contents greater than normal--up to 48% solid residue (median: 11% for patients and 0% for controls, P < 0.01) and 40% of liquid (median 9% vs 0%, P < 0.01). Three of four patients with upper gastrointestinal symptoms 6 hr after the meal had gastric retention of solids markedly outside the normal range (48%, 32%, and 16%; normal < 4%). Small bowel transit time was assessed as the time for the solid phase to pass from the duodenum to the cecum; the constipated patients demonstrated delayed transit (median: 75 vs 55 min, P < 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Radio-opaque markers have a well established role in distinguishing between patients with normal and those with slow intestinal transit, but in the latter group their accuracy in defining the region of delay has not been established. To study regional colonic transit accurately the transit of a radioisotope labelled meal was determined and findings were compared with those of simultaneously ingested radio-opaque markers. Twelve healthy controls (mean age 33 years) and 12 severely constipated women (mean age 36 years, bowel frequency < once per week) were studied On day 1, a meal containing 10 MBq 111In bound to 0.7 mm resin microspheres was ingested. Subjects also ingested a set of radiologically distinguishable markers on three successive days. Abdominal scans were obtained three times daily for 7 days. Abdominal radiographs were obtained after 72 or 96 hours and again at 144 or 168 hours. Eight 'regions of interest' were created--one for the small bowel, six for the colon, and one for excreted stool. The constipated patients all showed colonic transit outside the normal range, with a variable site of delay demonstrated by time activity curves for each region. To provide a different measure of the effectiveness of colonic transport, the movement of the 'centre of mass' for the radioisotope and for the markers was then determined. The radioisotope and radiopaque marker methods gave similar results. At all times between 24 and 144 hours there was no significant difference for the position of the centre of mass between the radio-opaque and marker methods. At all times, however, the mean difference between the markers and the radioisotopes was positive, indicating that the center of mass of the markers was always head of that of the radioisotope. The mean difference between the methods was never greater than one region of interest, and ranged from 12 to 72% of one region of interest in the colon. The difference between these two methods could reach up to two colonic segments in certain patients at one time. Radioisotope ingestion provides accurate information about the transit through individual colonic regions because of the possibility of frequent observations and the clear delineation of the entire colon. Although these features were not obtained with radio-opaque markers, they are suitable as a screening test for the presence and pattern of colonic delay.
Gastric emptying of liquid (orange juice containing technetium-99m (99mTc) labelled antimony sulphide colloid) and solid (570 kcal pancake containing 0.5 mm resin microspheres labelled with Indium-111 (111-In)) was measured in seven patients with jejunum and no colon (jejunal lengths 30-160 cm), six patients with jejunum in continuity with the colon (jejunal length 25-75 cm), and in 12 normal subjects. In patients with no colon early emptying of liquid was rapid (median 25% emptying: 7 v 25 min, no colon v normal, p < 0.05); early gastric emptying of solid was rapid in two (each with less than 100 cm jejunum) and normal in the other five. Gastric emptying of liquid and solid for patients with jejunum in continuity with the colon was normal for the first three hours. There was increased liquid and solid retained in the stomach at six hours in both groups of patients (p < 0.01). Small bowel transit time was faster than in normal subjects for liquid in both groups of patients (p < 0.05) and for solid in those with no colon (p < 0.05). Rapid gastric emptying of liquid may contribute to the large stomal output in patients with a high jejunostomy. Preservation of the colon after a major small intestinal resection exerts a braking effect on the rate of early gastric emptying of liquid.
Conditions which resulted in colonic preservation such as strangulated hernia, intestinal volvulus, and mesenteric infarction were once the main reasons for a major intestinal resection leading to the short bowel syndrome. Now Crohn's disease is the most common underlying diagnosis; such patients often have a jejunostomy. A measurement of the residual jejunal length from the duodenojejunal flexure makes possible predictions of patient outcome. Patients with a jejunostomy and less than 100 cm jejunum usually need long-term parenteral support, whereas 50 cm or more of jejunum usually suffices for adequate oral nutrition if the colon is preserved. While patients with and without a colon have problems with nutrient absorption, those with a jejunostomy also have problems of water, sodium and magnesium losses. Stomal losses may exceed oral intake and all such patients ('secretors') need parenteral supplements. Fluid and sodium losses can be reduced by octreotide, omeprazole or H2 blockers but not sufficiently to avoid the need for intravenous supplements. Colonic preservation increases the incidence of calcium oxalate renal stones (20%). Patients with and without a colon have a high prevalence of gallstones (40%). Clinically important intestinal adaptation occurs in those with a colon but not in those with a jejunostomy. Many surgical techniques, including small bowel transplantation, have been suggested to improve absorption, but as the quality of life of most patients with a short bowel is good with current treatments, they are not at present recommended.
Controlled trials have shown that bleeding peptic ulcers can be successfully treated by endoscopy and injection of adrenaline, with or without sclerosant. However, these trials have been done in major research centres, and endoscopic treatment of upper gastrointestinal bleeding has not yet become routine in general hospitals. We have done a prospective, randomised, controlled trial of injection treatment for bleeding peptic ulcers in a district general hospital. Between April, 1989, and June, 1991, all patients with acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding (n = 555) underwent endoscopy by an experienced endoscopist within 24 h of admission. 98 patients were found to have an ulcer with a visible vessel, of whom 93 were randomised to injection (n = 48) or standard treatment alone (n = 45). Injection treatment consisted of 1-2 ml of 1 in 10,000 adrenaline injected at four to six sites around the ulcer. Adrenaline and 5% ethanolamine oleate (1-2 ml) were then injected directly into the vessel. The medical team managing the patient was unaware of the endoscopic treatment given. The two groups were similar for age, initial haemoglobin concentration, shock, and ulcer site. Rebleeding (injected 8 [16.7%] vs control 21 [46.7%], p = 0.011) was significantly reduced in treated patients. The treated group also had lower mortality (4 [8.3%] vs 9 [20%]), requirement for surgery (4 [8.3%] vs 8 [17.8%]), and mean blood-transfusion requirement (5 vs 7.5 units). Endoscopic injection treatment in our patients significantly reduced rebleeding rate and may have other benefits. This cheap and widely applicable treatment can be used routinely in the management of patients with bleeding peptic ulcers who are at high risk of rebleeding.
A patient with a jejunostomy 100 cm from the duodeno-jejunal flexure, following surgery for Crohn's disease, had needed parenteral fluids at home for 14 years because of a negative intestinal balance of sodium. Measurements were made of her oral intake and intestinal output during study periods each of 2 days. Loperamide 4 mg QDS, codeine phosphate 60 mg QDS and both together put her into positive intestinal fluid balance but sodium balance remained negative. Both drugs used together were more effective than either used alone. Ranitidine 300 mg BD made no significant difference to her intestinal output. 1 litre of a glucose-electrolyte solution (120 mmol sodium) sipped during the day resulted in sodium balance, but only with the addition of loperamide and codeine phosphate was positive sodium balance achieved (mean 44 mmol/day). This therapy allowed her to dispense with parenteral fluids which have been stopped for the last year.