application) The mission of the Human Studies Core is to provide shared resources, personnel, services, education, and consultation to CURE investigators, trainees, and their collaborators for the study of patients with selected digestive diseases. The primary goal of this core is to facilitate collaboration, education about, and performance of GI clinical trials, human physiological studies, and health service studies in digestive diseases. The traditional focus of the core has been the investigation of peptic diseases and upper GI physiology, including secretion, motility, and hormonal regulation. This focus has been broadened to include the study of other important gastrointestinal illnesses such as complicated ulcer disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Barrett's epithelium, GI hemorrhage, non-ulcer dyspepsia, Helicobacter pylori infection, pre-cancer conditions (gastritis, polyposis, and ulcerative colitis), and inflammatory bowel disease. An overriding theme of the core is the study of the physiology of visceral pain which may be associated with all of these disorders. The importance of this area in GI diseases is highlighted by the impact of GI symptoms on quality of life and demand for health care services. With this in mind, the core has greatly expanded the study of neuroenteric diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), non-ulcer dyspepsia, and non-cardiac chest pain. The specific goals of this core are to provide CURE investigators, trainees, and their collaborators with access to: (1) a quality clinical research unit for performance of GI clinical research at a low cost, (2) utilization of fully equipped endoscopy units for GI clinical and physiologic research studies, (3) laboratory services for GI secretory tests, GI motility and pH testing, and H. pylori assessments (ELISA, C-14 breath testing, and histopathology), (4) teaching of clinical research techniques and consultation about study design, data management, statistical analysis, and routine outcomes, (5) tissue and clinical data banks of patients with selected GI diseases (the largest data bases are for GI hemorrhage and functional GI disease), (6) consultation about conducting health services research including design of studies, cost assessments, quality of life instruments, effectiveness studies, and modeling cost-effectiveness studies, (7) specialized equipment for GI studies (such as equipment for ablating Barrett's epithelium or endoscopic ultrasound instruments), (8) psychophysiology and GI motility laboratories for the study of neuroenteric diseases, and (9) utilization of a brain imaging unit for the study of neuroenteric diseases. The instruments and personnel required for these services and functions are expensive, so that sharing them among various investigators in a core is cost effective and promotes collaboration.
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