A New International Questionnaire Study: What is Needed to Develop a Global Classification System for Disorders of the Gut-Brain Axis (DGBI)?

Last year Prof. Jan Tack and Prof. Kok Ann Gwee jointly initiated a multicenter study entitled AEGIS (Asian European GastroIntestinal Symptoms). In 2018, both research groups have published contradictory results regarding symptom clusters in patients with a DGBI. Now, they started investigating where the differences in results come from.

Is it the difference in lifestyle in Eastern and Western countries?

Is it the difference in the questionnaire that was used in both studies (Rome IV and the Enhanced Asian Rome III questionnaire (EAR3Q))?

The current AEGIS protocol aims to compare an Eastern and Western DGBI cohorts that fill out both questionnaires to see what is necessary to develop a worldwide up to date classification system, considering both the Asian and the current Rome approach. Additional participating Eastern and Western research centers have been recruited and both professors are very enthusiastic about recruiting more.

The Principal Investigators that have currently showed interest: Prof. Jinsong Liu, Prof. Gerald Holtmann, Prof. Hidekazu Suzuki, and Prof. Sanjiv Mahadeva. Previous publications: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2018.02.042 and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cgh.2018.09.027
More information: click here Contact information to express interest: click here

A Genetic research in functional dyspepsia: The FunDysGWAS study

A heritable component of functional dyspepsia (FD) has been demonstrated in cohorts of patients and community-based studies. However, genetic studies of FD have thus far been very scarce and mostly limited to candidate genes in small sample sets of cases and controls, hence no unequivocal FD risk locus has been proposed. Opposite to most human complex diseases, powered large-scale gene-hunting efforts and hypothesis-free genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been completely lacking in FD, which represents some sort of “neglected disorder” in terms of genetic research.

The current FunDysGWAS proposal aims to study the genotype of fully characterized FD patients in different European countries. This study could contribute to key insight into the genetic predisposition of functional dyspepsia. This will also allow later in depth analyses of the potential effect of FD risk genes on associated intermediate phenotypes (endophenotypes)  key to symptom generation.

Are you interested in participating as a recruiting research center? Contact us. More information: click here

"Spilling Our Guts": Newsletter from the Editors of Neurogastroenterology & Motility, the official journal of the ANMS and ESNM

In these newsletters, the editors will highlight exciting current and upcoming articles in Neurogastroenterology and Motility and celebrate the past successes. The Editor’s Choice articles are free downloads for one month.  You are encouraged to give feedback and suggestions, as they continually strive to grow and improve the journal.

If you wish to receive the newlsetter regularly please sign in here