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This text fulfills its title by providing an in-depth review of the current clinical and physiologic knowledge of secretory diarrhea. It is actually a compilation of papers presented at the first International Colloquium in Gastroenterology in London in 1978, the contributing authors being recognized experts in the field.
The book is nicely divided into four sections. The first, covering intestinal transport and regulation, defines the types of sodium and chloride transport within the small intestine and the role of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) in secretion. Several chapters deal extensively with laboratory studies of transport flux, components of microvilli, and basal lateral membranes and are of interest primarily to the laboratory investigator. Section 2 contains several excellent chapters discussing host defenses, microbial virulence, and the similarities and differences of secretory diarrhea due to Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae. Interspersed are highly technical descriptions of cholera toxin binding to small-intestinal cells