Gastroenterology: Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow: A Review and Preview

Contents.-List of principal contributors.-Preface.-SECTION I: ESOPHAGUS: Treatment of uncomplicated reflux disease.-Curative endoscopic resection of early esophageal adenocarcinomas (Barrett's cancer).-Selective COX-2 inhibitors - safety and side-effects.-SECTION II: STOMACH: The pathogenesis of peptic ulcer and distal gastric cancer.-Vaccination against Helicobacter pylori.-MALT lymphoma: lessons from Germany.-Who gets gastric cancer -predisposition or bad luck.-Upper gastrointestinal tract endoscopy: quo vadis?.-SECTION III: LIVER I: Portal hypertension: diagnosis and treatment.-Current therapy of hepatitis C.-The role of mutation in drug resistance and pathogenesis of hepatitis B and hepatitis C.-SECTION IV: LIVER II: Etiology, pathogenesis and treatment of hemochromatosis.-Wilson disease: from gene to patient.-Hepatic stem cells and hepatocyte transplantation: future therapeutic applications.-SECTION V: BILIARY TRACT: Pathomechanisms of cholestasis: targets for medical treatment.-Adaptive regulation of bile salt transporters in cholestasis.-Treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis: current standards.-Primary sclerosing cholangitis: neoplastic potential and chemopreventive effect of ursodeoxycholic acid.-The pruritus of cholestasis.-SECTION VI: PANCREAS: Stages and course of chronic pancreatitis.-Basis and future of enzyme replacement therapy.-Hedgehog signalling in pancreatic cancer.-SECTION VII: INTESTINAL DISORDERS I: Does JC virus initiate chromosomal instability in colorectal cancer?.-Testing the gut and its function - faecal samples - breath tests and more?.-SECTION VIII: INTESTINAL DISORDERS II: Regulatory T cells in animal models: therapeutic potential.-Imaging of the small and large bowel -from ultrasound to virtual endoscopy.-Colorectal carcinoma - primary prevention and screening.-Treatment of IBD: 'early hit' or step wise escalation?.-The clinical impact of mesalazine for research and therapy in inflammatory bowel disease.-Gastroenterology: History of