Handbook of Gastrointestinal Motility and Functional Disorders

Handbook of Gastrointestinal Motility and Functional Disorders is a user-friendly handbook that reviews the latest and most up-to-date information on the evaluation of symptoms and diagnostic tests of GI motility and functional GI disorders and a practical approach on how to treat these disorders. Each chapter is written by an international expert in the field who was carefully chosen for his or her renowned scientific and clinical expertise. The book brings together the essence of science and art in the practice of neurogastroenterology and GI motility.

The chapters are enriched with algorithms, tables, and figures to enhance learning and readability. Each chapter follows a specific outline; chapters on symptoms follow the format of definition, pathophysiology, and evaluation of the symptoms, whereas the chapters on specific disorders follow the format of definition, diagnosis, and treatment. This allows for quick reading of the various chapters and to gain up-to-date knowledge of the topic.

Each chapter also includes extensive color pictures and illustrations of each test involved and descriptions of how to perform and interpret the motility tests that are incorporated into patient care decisions.

Handbook of Gastrointestinal Motility and Functional Disorders by Drs. Satish S. C. Rao, Henry P. Parkman, and Richard W. McCallum will be useful for practicing physicians, junior academicians, GI fellows, young faculty, motility laboratory personnel, surgeons, internists, physician assistants, family practitioners, and nurse practitioners who all encounter the common problems of dysphagia, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, and fecal incontinence in their daily practice.

The update on management and therapy completes the Handbook of Gastrointestinal Motility and Functional Disordersand explains how to integrate this diagnostic information into decision making, and how to translate this to day-to-day patient care.

Satish S.C. Rao, MD, PhD, FRCP graduated from Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, India. Subsequently, he completed his graduate medical education and GI Fellowship and Clinical Research training at several UK hospitals, notably Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, and Royal Liverpool Hospitals before becoming a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London. He earned his PhD from the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom. He joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1991 where he participated in many National Institutes of Health (NIH)–funded research projects and cofounded the Pelvic Floor Group. In 2011, Dr. Rao was recruited to the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University, Augusta, Georgia, to serve as professor of medicine, chief of the Section of Gastroenterology/Hepatology, and the new founding director of the Digestive Health Center and the GI Service Line.
In this role, he is leading an aggressive initiative to expand the university’s capabilities in treating digestive disorders that includes a brand-new Digestive Health Center and a state-of-the-art, 5-room neurogastroenterology and motility suite. He plans to work closely with colleagues in surgery, urology, otolaryngology, and neurology to create a model system of interdisciplinary care for GI motility patients.
Dr. Rao is past president of the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Society. He received the 3 highest honors from the American Gastroenterological Association: the Distinguished Clinician Award, the Masters Award for Outstanding Clinical Research, and the Distinguished Educator Award. He received the Auxiliary Research Award from the American College of Gastroenterology and several international awards for his research and teaching. He serves on the editorial board of several journals, is cochair of AGA Council on Neurogastroentrology and GI Motility, has published over 300 articles, and has edited 5 books on GI motility.

Henry P. Parkman, MD joined the faculty of Temple University School of Medicine in 1990, and has been actively involved in studying GI motility at both the basic science and clinical levels. His clinical focus has been treating patients with GI motility disorders, primarily gastroparesis. Clinically at Temple, Dr. Parkman is in charge of the GI Motility Laboratory that assesses GI motility dysfunction in patients. His clinical laboratory has developed expertise in a comprehensive array of GI motility tests for clinical evaluation of patients, including specialized tests of esophageal and gastric motility. This is a referral center for the evaluation and treatment of GI motility disorders.
Dr. Parkman was funded for 10 years with an NIH K24 Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research entitled “Novel Evaluation & Treatment of Gastric Dysmotility,” which, in addition to funding research in gastric motility, provided time for him to mentor young investigators in clinical research. Through this research, studies were performed on novel ways to assess gastric emptying.
Dr. Parkman is currently a funded member of the NIH Gastroparesis Clinical Research Consortium, now in its second 5-year cycle, established by the NIDDK to enhance the understanding of gastroparesis. This research has better defined the syndromes of diabetic and idiopathic gastroparesis, and the consortium is now conducting clinical trials to help better treat patients with their refractory symptoms of nausea and vomiting. His manuscript on the use of nortriptyline for nausea and abdominal pain in gastroparesis recently appeared in JAMA. He is currently studying the neurokinin receptor antagonist aprepitant as a treatment for the nausea and vomiting seen in gastroparesis.
During his presidency of the American Neurogastroenterological and Motility Society, Dr. Parkman helped standardize the radionuclide gastric emptying study and make it a more standardized test that ca