Why the N (Nutrition) was Added in the EAGEN Acronym?

Background: Nutrition has been neglected for a long time as an important factor in the pathogenesis of digestive diseases, but also in the treatment, despite Hippocrates long ago insisted "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

Summary: New insights into the importance of nutrition in the emergence of disease, and especially in the field of prevention of diseases of the digestive tract, impose the need to pay special attention to the nutrition field. The goal of nutrition as one of the focuses of European Association on Gastroenterology, Endoscopy and Nutrition (EAGEN) activities means awareness of the importance and the goal of making nutrition knowledge a part of comprehensive gastroenterologist's continuous education.

Epidemiological trends in stomach-related diseases.

Epidemiology is a study of disease variations by geography, population demographics and time. Temporal influences can manifest themselves as age effects, period effects, cohort effects, seasonal or monthly variations. The acquisition of Helicobacter pylori infection during early childhood and the ensuing risk for the future development of peptic ulcer or gastric cancer represents a typical example for a cohort effect in digestive diseases.

Extraintestinal manifestations of autoimmune pancreatitis.

The term autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) was first used in Japan in 1995 to describe a newly recognized form of chronic pancreatitis, after the description of Yoshida and colleagues. But Sarles in 1961, first described a form of idiopathic chronic inflammatory sclerosis of the pancreas, suspected to be due to an autoimmune process. AIP has become a widely accepted term because clinical, serologic, histologic, and immunohistochemical findings suggest an autoimmune mechanism.

Complications of peptic ulcer disease.

There are four major complications of peptic ulcer disease (PUD): bleeding, perforation, penetration, and obstruction. Complications can occur in patients with peptic ulcer of any etiology. Despite improvements in the medical management and the lower overall incidence of PUD, there are conflicting data about the incidence of potentially life-threatening ulcer complications.

Classification of chronic pancreatitis.

Chronic pancreatitis (CP), defined as a continuing inflammatory disease of the pancreas characterized by irreversible morphological changes which typically cause abdominal pain and/or permanent impairment of pancreatic function, has proved resistant to categorization. The disease may present clinically either with an individual symptom or a combination of symptoms associated with loss of pancreatic function. The single most frequent symptom of CP is pain, either in the form of intermittent episodes or in a more chronic or persistent pattern.