Horses for courses. Comparative gastroenterology: common ground and collaborative potential

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7527.1248

BMJ 2005;331:1248-1251 (26 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7527.1248

Clinical review

Horses for courses. Comparative gastroenterology: common ground and collaborative potential

Neil P H Hudson, veterinary fellow¹, Malcolm G Dunlop, professor²

¹ Gastrointestinal Motility and Disease Laboratory, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, Summerhall, Edinburgh EH9 1QH, ² Academic Coloproctology, University of Edinburgh, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh EH4 2XU

Correspondence to: N Hudson neil.hudson@ed.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Introduction

Gastrointestinal diseases, including motility and obstructivedisorders, are common in both human¹ and veterinary² medicine.Such disorders tend to be clinically important problems in bothdisciplines, with extensive impact on veterinary practice aswell as having human public health and economic implications.Considerable time is lost from work due to gut disorders. Motordisorders of the gastrointestinal tract are particularly common,and understanding the physiology of motility and gut functionis key to examination of the pathophysiology of intestinal disease.³Few animal models of functional gastrointestinal disorders exist,however, and so there is considerable rationale for comparativestudy of disease in veterinary and human medicine. Such studyaffords the opportunity to shed new light on disease processesthat so far have proved difficult to study for practical, ethical,and biological reasons. Comparable intestinal disorders betweenspecies include postoperative ileus, intestinal obstruction,pseudo-obstruction, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatorybowel diseases.