Jay W. Marks, MD, is a board-certified internist and gastroenterologist. He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology at UCLA/Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Dr. Lee was born in Shanghai, China, and received his college and medical training in the United States. He is fluent in English and three Chinese dialects. He graduated with chemistry departmental honors from Harvey Mudd College. He was appointed president of AOA society at UCLA School of Medicine. He underwent internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship training at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.
Modern endoscopic techniques have revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment
of diseases of the upper gastrointestinal tract (esophagus, stomach, and
duodenum) and the colon. The last remaining frontier has been the small
intestine.
The small intestine has been a difficult organ in which to make diagnoses and treat without
performing surgery. Radiologicalprocedures, specifically the upper GI series with
small bowel
follow-through, which involves following swallowed barium as it passes through
the intestine with x-ray films, have been available for diagnosis, but
these radiological procedures are time-consuming and are not accurate in
identifying small tumors and other subtle abnormalities of the small intestine. The
demand for improved capabilities in the small intestine has been less because a
minority of intestinal diseases involve the small intestine beyond the reach of
the upper gastrointestinal endoscope and the colonoscope. Nevertheless, improved
diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities in the small intestine would be very
useful, particularly in uncovering the causes of abdominal pain, diarrhea, and
anemia due to
intestinal loss of blood and diagnosing diseases that may involve only the small
intestine, for example, Crohn's disease. One of the newer technologies that
expands the diagnostic capabilities in the small intestine is capsule endoscopy
also known as wireless capsule endoscopy.
Abdominal pain is pain in the belly and can be acute or chronic. Causes include inflammation, distention of an organ, and loss of the blood supply to an
Anemia is the condition of having less than the normal number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. The oxygen-carrying
Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory disease,
primarily involving the small and large intestine, but which can
affect other parts of the digestive
Cancer is a disease caused by an abnormal growth of cells, also called malignancy. It is a group of 100 different diseases, and is not contagious. Cancer
Dyspepsia (indigestion) is a functional disease in which the gastrointestinal organs, primarily the stomach and first part of the small intestine, function
An upper gastrointestinal
(GI) series (barium swallow), is a radiological test that is used to visualize the
structures of the upper digestive
system - the esophagus, stomach and du"...
