• The Laboratory Bench.- Introduction: Inflammatory bowel disease: from bench to bedside.- The changing faces of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.- Genetics of inflammatory bowel disease.- Experimental mouse models of inflammatory bowel disease: new insights into pathogenic mechanisms.- The normal intestinal mucosa: a state of ‘controlled inflammation’.- The lymphocyte-epithelial-bacterial interface.- The mucosal inflammatory response. Cytokines and chemokines.- Role of the microcirculation in chronic gut inflammation.- Remission, relapse, intestinal healing and repair.- Antibodies in the exploration of inflammatory bowel disease pathogenesis and disease stratification.- Pathophysiology of inflammatory bowel disease: the effect of inflammation on intestinal function.- Systemic consequences of intestinal inflammation.- The Bedside.- Understanding symptoms and signs in inflammatory bowel disease.- Clinical course and complications of ulcerative colitis and ulcerative proctitis.- Clinical features and complications of Crohn’s disease.- Mechanisms of systemic inflammation associated with intestinal injury.- Pathology of inflammatory bowel disease: a critical appraisal in diagnosis and management.- An endoscopic and histologic perspective of diagnosis: when, where, and what to do.- Radiologic (radiographic) and imaging features of ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.- New diagnostic approaches in inflammatory bowel disease.- Differential diagnosis of colitis.- ‘Disease management’ in chronic medical conditions.- Pharmacoeconomics and inflammatory bowel disease.- Measuring quality of life in inflammatory bowel disease.- Clinical pharmacology in inflammatory bowel disease: optimizing current medical therapy.- Multi-site therapeutic modalities forinflammatory bowel diseases — mechanisms of action.- Targeted therapies for inflammatory bowel disease.- Role of antibiotics and probiotics in the management of inflammatory bowel disease.- Nutrition in inflammatory bowel disease.- Medical management of ulcerative colitis.- Surgical management of ulcerative colitis.- Pouchitis: clinical characteristics and management.- Medical therapy for Crohn’s disease.- Surgery for Crohn’s disease.- Postoperative prevention of recurrence of Crohn’s disease.- The molecular pathology of inflammatory bowel disease-associated neoplasia and preneoplasia.- Dysplasia in inflammatory bowel disease: clinical pathology and current surveillance methods.- Hepatobiliary disorders.- Articular and ocular complications of inflammatory bowel disease.- Cutaneous manifestations of inflammatory bowel disease.- Fertility and pregnancy in inflammatory bowel disease.- Special considerations in the diagnosis and management of inflammatory bowel disease in the pediatric age group.- Microscopic colitis: collagenous and lymphocytic colitis.- Colon ischemia.- Diversion colitis.- Pseudomembranous colitis and Clostridium difficile infection.- Infectious colitis.- Human Immunodeficiency virus and inflammatory bowel disease.- Bone metabolism and inflammatory bowel disease.- Back to the Laboratory Bench.- Epilogue: Bench to bedside and back to bench.

'This is one of the most comprehensive, well written and convincing books on IBD we have had the opportunity to examine in recent years. It is well written (it includes several well known experts in the field), nicely illustrated, up to date (references reach up to 2001) and extremely stimulating. If you have EUR 200 to invest, do not hesitate to buy this book: you will be well rewarded by all you will learn when you glance through its pages.' Digestive and Liver Disease, 36 (2004)