This collaboration of two physiologists and a gastroenterologist provides medical and graduate students, medical and surgical residents, and subspecialty fellows a comprehensive summary of digestive system physiology and addresses the pathophysiological processes that underliesome GI diseases. The textual approach proceeds by organ instead of the traditional organization followed by other GI textbooks. This approach lets the reader track the food bolus as it courses through the GI tract, learning on the way each organ’s physiologic functions as the bolus directly or indirectly contacts it. The book is divided into three parts: (1) Chapters 1-3 include coverage of basic concepts that pertain to all (or most) organs of the digestive system, salivation, chewing, swallowing, and esophageal function, (2) Chapters 4-6 are focused on the major secretory organs (stomach, pancreas, liver) that assist in the assimilation of a meal, and (3) Chapters 7 and 8 address the motor, transport, and digestive functions of the small and large intestines. Each chapter includes its own pathophysiology and clinical correlation section that underscores the importance of the organ’s normal function.
Table of Contents
Basic Concepts
Eating: Salivation, Chewing, and Swallowing
The Esophagus
The Stomach
The Pancreas
The Liver and Biliary Tree
The Small Intestine
The Large Intestine
Author Biographies
About the Author(s)
D. Neil Granger, LSU Health Sciences Center
D. Neil Granger, Ph.D., is Boyd Professor Emeritus in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. His research interests have been focused on the role of the microcirculation in acute and chronic inflammation and how risk factors for cardiovascular disease influence microvascular function. Dr. Granger has a longstanding record of teaching physiology to medical and graduate students. He has served on the editorial boards of the GI & Liver, Heart & Circulation, and Cell sections of the American Journal of Physiology, as well as Circulation Research, Microcirculation, Shock, Pathophysiology, Free Radical Biology & Medicine, Lymphatic Research and Biology, and Nitric Oxide Biology & Chemistry. He was an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physiology: GI & Liver Physiology and the Editor-in-Chief of Microcirculation.
Dr. Granger has also served on the Physiology Test Committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners, and was a member of the Clinical Sciences-2, Cardiovascular & Renal, and General Medicine-A2 Study Sections and the Gastrointestinal Mucosal Pathobiology Study Sections of the National Institutes of Health. He also served on several peer review panels and policy committees for the American Heart Association, the Research Committee of the American Gastroenterological Association, and the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Granger served as President of the American Physiological Society (APS) and the Microcirculatory Society (MCS). He has received several awards and honors for his research, including the APS Bowditch Award, the Distinguished Research Award from the GI Section of the APS, the Landis Award from the US Microcirculatory Society, the Laerdal Award from the Society for Critical Care Medicine, the McKenna Memorial Award from the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology, the Dolph Adams Award from the Society for Leukocyte Biology, the Career of Distinction Award from the Oxygen Society, the Nishimaru-Tsuchiya International Award from the Japanese Microcirculatory Society, the Robert M. Berne Lectureship from the APS, and the Benjamin W. Zweifach Award from the US Microcirculatory Society. He was also designated a Highly Cited Investigator by the Institute for Scientific Information.
Peter R. Kvietys, Alfaisal University
Peter R. Kvietys, Ph.D., is a Professor of Physiology at Alfaisal University and a Scientist in the Department of Cell Biology at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Dr. Kvietys has been a consultant for various government agencies both in the United States (e.g., NIH) and Canada (e.g., CIHR). He has served as an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physiology: Gastrointestinal & Liver Physiology. Dr. Kvietys has published numerous research articles and several books dealing with various aspects of gastrointestinal physiology and pathophysiology.
James D. Morris, LSU Health Sciences Center
James D. Morris, MD., FACG, FACP, AGAF, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. He serves as a clinical educator actively seeing patients and engaged in educational activities for all levels of medical students, residents, and gastroenterology fellows. He currently serves as the Program Director for the Gastroenterology fellowship after previously serving as the Associate Program Director for three years. He also is involved in the medical curriculum for medical students as the Co-Course Director of the undergraduate medical student course in gastrointestinal and liver diseases. He has worked in the area of colon cancer screening education research and inflammatory bowel disease trials.
Dr. Morris completed his BS in Animal Science and BS in Microbiology from Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport. A residency in internal medicine was completed at the LSU Internal Medicine Residency in Baton Rouge/Earl K. Long Medical Center followed by a fellowship in gastroenterology at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. Additional training in advanced and therapeutic endoscopy was completed at the Tulane University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. He was elected as a faculty member to the Gold Humanism Honor Society and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He is a previous recipient of the ARCUS Group Humanitarian in Medicine. He is a current fellow in the American College of Gastroenterology, American College of Physicians, and the American Gastroenterology Association.
