GastroenteroloGy

Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators have discovered a critical role that inflammation plays in liver regeneration after liver resection. While effective regeneration requires some inflammation, too much of it causes regeneration failure. They also discovered that patients experiencing dysfunctional liver regeneration had a significantly dysregulated gene known as DUSP4 – a finding that could help support targeted therapeutic strategies administered before or after surgical resection to prevent liver failure.

In this "Hot Topic," Melissa Snyder, Ph.D., provides a brief review of published guidelines for the diagnosis of celiac disease, with a specific focus on the role of laboratory testing.

This "Specialty Testing" webinar describes a new serum test for bile acid malabsorption. Descriptions illustrate how the test can be used as a screening test and as a tool for therapeutic action.

Mayo Clinic researchers are now using artificial intelligence (AI) systems to help increase polyp detection during colonoscopies and identify colorectal cancer at an early stage. Like facial recognition software that recognizes faces, this AI tool is being trained to recognize polyps. It works alongside the physician during a colonoscopy, scanning the video feed and drawing boxes around polyps that may otherwise have been overlooked due to their subtleness.

As someone affected by chronic liver disease, Susan Parrott knows how it feels to live in uncertainty. But every few months, the anxiety and doubt that shadow her life fade when Mayo Clinic Laboratories test results confirm her condition is in check and she can continue living life on her own terms.

Mayo Clinic Laboratories is committed to innovation that provides the right test at the right time for the right patients. That effort always starts with identifying gaps in patient care. Filling those gaps sometimes involves not developing new tests but finding ways to make existing tests more efficient and easier for patients.

For Billy Dowell Jr., a competitive golfer, focus, determination, and course correction are essential to excelling at the sport. These skills, along with routine follow-up care and testing, are also important to navigating a life impacted by multiple chronic autoimmune conditions.

In this month's "Hot Topic," Melissa Snyder, Ph.D., co-director of the antibody immunology laboratory at Mayo Clinic, discusses celiac disease and the role of diagnostic testing algorithms.

Puanani Hopson, D.O., explains how Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ malabsorption panel can provide timelier diagnosis for children with chronic diarrhea or unexplained weight loss. The novel panel, which bundles four existing tests, requires just one stool sample.

Paul Jannetto, Ph.D., describes Mayo Clinic Laboratories' new direct biomarker test for alcohol consumption. PETH is a blood test with a window of detection of about two to four weeks — compared with five days for urine-based screening for alcohol use.

For a young child diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease, an unexpected turn of events led by results of a Mayo Clinic Laboratories test freed him and his family from the bonds of frequent medical visits and expensive treatment, and opened the door to a life unencumbered by illness.

In this test specific episode of the  "Answers From the Lab" podcast, Melissa Snyder, Ph.D., explains how IBDP2, when used after first-line testing has failed, can distinguish between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.