The small bowel follow-through: time to sit up.

It is common practice for patients to lie on their right side during small bowel barium follow-through examinations. The rationale is that this speeds up transit time and improves diagnostic usefulness. The results of a randomized, prospective study of 105 patients are presented.

Nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug-induced intestinal inflammation in humans.

This study examines the effects of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs on the small intestine in humans. Using an 111In-leukocyte technique in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (n = 90) and osteoarthritis (n = 7), it appears that nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs cause small intestinal inflammation in two-thirds of patients on long-term treatment and on discontinuation, the inflammation may persist for up to 16 mo. The prevalence and magnitude of the intestinal inflammation was unrelated to the type and dose of nonsteroidal drugs and previous or concomitant second-line drug treatment.