Assessment of proximal gastric accommodation in patients with functional dyspepsia

Impaired gastric accommodation is one of the most important etiologic factors in the pathophysiology of functional dyspepsia.Ultrasound is a potential alternative method to study changes in gastric volume as a reflection of gastric accommodation.Ultrasound is suitable for patients because it is a non-invasive,easily repeated and non-radioactive procedure,and a previous study has demonstrated the feasibility of 3-dimensional ultrasound in examining functional dyspepsia.The brief article by Fan et al demonstrated that both the proximal gastric area and volume,measured by 2-and 3-dimensional ultrasound respectively,were significantly smaller in patients with functional dyspepsia than in healthy controls.These results are very interesting,but we raise the relevant point that it should have been mandatory to study both changes in gastric volume and their relationship with upper gastrointestinal symptoms in functional dyspepsia.In fact,the relationship between cardinal symptoms and several pathophysiologic mechanisms in functional dyspepsia remains a matter of debate.Moreover,further evaluation of distal gastric volume that has been previously implicated in the origin of functional dyspeptic symptoms is advisable.Therefore,impaired gastric accommodation does not serve as a clear marker of the cardinal symptoms experienced by patients with functional dyspepsia in daily life.

ESTIMATES OF N -FUNCTION AND m-FUNCTION OF MEROMORPHIC SOLUTIONS OF SYSTEMS OF COMPLEX DIFFERENCE EQUATIONS

We apply Nevanlinna theory of the value distribution of meromorphic functions to study the properties of Nevanlinna counting function and proximity function of meromorphic solutions of a type of systems of complex difference equations. Our results can give estimates on the proximity function and the counting function of solutions of systems of difference equations. This implies that solutions have a relatively large number of poles. It extend some result concerning difference equations to the systems of difference equations.

Proximal gastric motility in critically ill patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

AIM： To investigate the proximal gastric motor response to duodenal nutrients in critically ill patients with longstanding type 2 diabetes mellitus.METHODS： Proximal gastric motility was assessed （using a barostat） in 10 critically ill patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus （59±3 years） during two 60-min duodenal infusions of Ensure （1 and 2 kcal/min）, in random order, separated by 2h fasting. Data were compared with 15 non-diabetic critically ill patients （48 ± 5 years） and 10 healthy volunteers （28 ±3 years）. RESULTS： Baseline proximal gastric volumes were similar between the three groups. In diabetic patients, proximal gastric relaxation during I kcal/min nutrient infusion was similar to non-diabetic patients and healthy controls. In contrast, relaxation during 2 kcal/ min infusion was initially reduced in diabetic patients （P 〈 0.05） but increased to a level similar to healthy humans, unlike non-diabetic patients where relaxation was impaired throughout the infusion. Duodenal nutrient stimulation reduced the fundic wave frequency in a dose-dependent fashion in both the critically ill diabetic patients and healthy subjects, but not in critically ill patients without diabetes. Fundic wave frequency in diabetic patients and healthy subjects was greater than in non-diabetic patients.CONCLUSION： In patients with diabetes mellitus, proximal gastric motility is less disturbed than nondiabetic patients during critical illness, suggesting that these patients may not be at greater risk of delayed gastric emptying.

THE IMPLICIT CONVEX FEASIBILITY PROBLEM AND ITS APPLICATION TO ADAPTIVE IMAGE DENOISING

The implicit convex feasibility problem attempts to find a point in the intersection of a finite family of convex sets, some of which are not explicitly determined but may vary. We develop simultaneous and sequential projection methods capable of handling such problems and demonstrate their applicability to image denoising in a specific medical imaging situation. By allowing the variable sets to undergo scaling, shifting and rotation, this work generalizes pre^ious results -vherein the implicit convex feasibility problem was used for cooperative wireless sensor network positioning where sets are balls and their centers were implicit.