Mary Ellen Sanders introduced ‘biotics’ as a family of four microbiome-targeted substances: probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics. Each type of biotic has the potential to impact the resident microbes of a host, which have diverse physiological functions, including promotion of fat storage and angiogenesis, immune development, synthesis of vitamins and amino acids, drug metabolism, modification of the nervous system, breakdown of food, resistance to pathogens, protection against epithelial injury, and modulation of bone-mass density.

I considered, at the time, and still consider, that gastroenterology is a very interesting and diverse specialty. In fact, it has a practical component (endoscopic techniques) and a clinical more reflexive component, mostly in the hepatology area. Altogether, it gives a myriad of opportunities and varied activities. Furthermore, it is in constant development, what represents a challenge, and makes it even more exciting. Regarding persons, several persons shaped my progression. My first mentor, Pinto Correia, was an outstanding scientist and educator in gastroenterology and was certainly my role model.

Details of a hypothetical 24-year-old female with a longstanding history of recurrent abdominal pain were presented. Over the previous 10 years, she had presented at the ED once or twice yearly with episodes of severe abdominal pain. At her last ED visit, her abdominal pain was debilitating and overwhelming (9–10/10 in severity). Liver function tests were mildly elevated, but blood counts, inflammatory markers, renal function tests, and urine analysis were all normal. Abdominal imaging (ultrasound and CT) and gynaecological examination were also normal. She was discharged from the ED without a specific diagnosis, but was referred for oesophagogastroduodenoscopy and colonoscopy, which were normal.

DETERMINING the timing of surgery remains a challenge for patients with adenomatous polyposis, an inherited autosomal dominant condition. This abstract was presented by Isabel Martin, St Mark’s Hospital, London, UK, at UEG Week Virtual, who noted: “Ideally intervention takes place before cancer is diagnosed, as afterwards the outcomes are very poor.” Upper gastrointestinal endoscopic surveillance was recommended following pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) or pancreas-sparing duodenectomy (PSD). This review is of importance in a field where long-term data is lacking.

As a medical student I had keen interest in internal medicine and the challenge that comes with solving cases. That is why I really wanted to do a MD-PhD programme and I have been fortunate to do so. My PhD targeted hyper-IgD syndrome, which was, at that time, an ill-recognised inflammatory disorder, and it took me from phenotyping to assessing cytokine profiles to therapeutic trials.

Clostriodioides difficile infection (CDI) remains globally one of the major causes of hospital-acquired infection, with almost half a…

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is an inflammatory condition of the pancreas that represents one of the most common gastrointestinal cause for…

The end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries witnessed a remarkable change in human nutritional status. Prior to this…

Small bowel diverticula are sac-like pouchings of the small bowel wall that can occur throughout the small bowel. Small bowel diverticula are most often found in the duodenum, followed by jejunum and ileum. In fact, Akhrass et al.,1 in their retrospective review of 208 patients with symptomatic small bowel diverticulosis, found that diverticula were located in the duodenum in 79% of cases, in the jejunum or ileum in 18% of cases, and in all three segments in 3% of cases. The incidence of jejunoileal diverticula is variable, reported to occur in 0.5–2.3% of individuals in radiographic series and up to 7% in autopsy studies.2 Furthermore, 77% of cases demonstrate multiple, as opposed to solitary, diverticula.3 They are more commonly reported in males, with the highest incidence in the sixth and seventh decades of life.

The majority of inflammatory rheumatic diseases (IRDs) affect females more frequently and many have peaks in their childbearing age…