Relationship between gastric disease and deletion of cag pathogenicity island genes of Helicobacter pylori in gastric juice.

The cag pathogenicity island genes of Helicobacter pylori (ie, cag1, cag5, cagT, cagE, and cagA) were detected by PCR in DNA extracted from endoscopically collected gastric juice, and the relationship between these genes and gastric disease was studied in 25 patients with early gastric cancer, 9 patients with gastric ulcer, and 15 patients with chronic active gastritis. In three patients with early gastric cancer and one patient with gastric ulcer, cag pathogenicity island genes were amplified although H. pylori was not detected by conventional methods.

Slow fluid infusion alters esophageal tone before onset of esophageal contraction in humans.

We investigated whether esophageal tone was altered by fluid infusion before the onset of esophageal contraction. In nine healthy volunteers, intraluminal esophageal pressure and esophageal pH were measured with a three-channel solid-state transducer and microglass electrodes, respectively. Saline or 0.