Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) is a common gastroenterological disorder characterised by recurrent abdominal pain and a change in bowel habit. Diagnosis is made with reference to clinical symptomatology and the exclusion of other competing disorders. As such there is no reliable biomarker in the clinical field to prove or disprove the diagnosis. This has obvious implications for the treatment of the syndrome. Recent research has targeted the immunology of IBS to see if changes in cytokine expression support the concept of a chronic low-level inflammatory state. IBS has a strong association with psychological comorbidity. Visceral hypersensitivity is also a hallmark of the disease. This study was constructed to compare the psychological profiles of patients with IBS against a control group; to use cortical evoked potentials to observe the cortical representation of an electrical rectal stimulus to see if changes in amplitude or latency might be suggestive of enhanced afferent nerve transmission; and to use cytokine analysis of stimulated and un-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells to study the inflammatory response.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:560717 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Bullas, Dominic |
| Contributors | Arebi, Naila ; Atkin, Wendy |
| Publisher | Imperial College London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/10224 |
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