Digestive Health Institute Education Videos

Our Digestive Health Institute physicians provide innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in all aspects of pediatric gastrointestinal (GI), liver, pancreatic and nutritional disorders. We’re committed to improving the health, care and quality of life for children and adolescents with digestive health conditions in the region and nationally.

One of the ways we commit to improving the digestive health of all children is by sharing our novel approaches to care with other providers so they can improve care in their own communities. In the following videos, our providers will discuss groundbreaking digestive health research, diagnosis, treatment and more. Watch the provider education videos below to learn from our GI, hepatology and nutrition experts.

Eosinophilic esophagitis disease monitoring

Eosinophilic esophagitis is a chronic disease that can cause a range of symptoms in both children and adults, including difficulty swallowing, food getting stuck, reflux and abdominal pain. Discover how the Gastrointestinal Eosinophilic Diseases Program at Children’s Hospital Colorado provides multidisciplinary care to improve patients' quality of life and how they're working to overcome barriers to care through research and clinical implementation. 

In this video, Director of Gastrointestinal Eosinophilic Diseases Program Glenn Furuta, MD, and colleagues Nathalie Nguyen, MD, and Calies Menard-Katcher ,MD, discuss pediatric eosinophilic esophagitis and introduce three innovative procedures for aiding in the assessment of the disease and the development of tailored treatment plans: transnasal endoscopy, esophageal string test and EndoFLIP test. 

Current management of idiopathic constipation

Idiopathic constipation is one of the most common gastrointestinal problems in pediatrics, with a spectrum ranging from mild to severe. Although there’s no cure for idiopathic constipation, most patients do well with standard medical treatments like laxatives and changes in diet, with only 1% of severe cases requiring surgery.

In this video, Luis De la Torre, MD, provides an overview of bowel management at Children’s Hospital Colorado, which claims a success rate over 95% for idiopathic constipation. Dr. De la Torre also describes the most reliable methods, such as abdominal X-rays, for assessing constipation severity and identifying initial treatment –– sometimes requiring enemas before starting on laxatives. As far as laxatives, Dr. De la Torre explains why senna is the superior option over polyethylene glycol.

Every patient diagnosed with celiac disease has a unique combination of symptoms. At the Colorado Center for Celiac Disease at Children’s Colorado, we offer comprehensive multidisciplinary care to treat these symptoms.

In this video, Mary Shull, MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist at the Digestive Health Institute, discusses the importance of multidisciplinary care in the quality of life of pediatric patients diagnosed with celiac disease. Dr. Shull also reviews studies focused on identifying how pediatric patients with celiac disease view their quality of life. She also emphasizes the way in which our team-based approach supports these patients and their families throughout their lifelong treatment.

Our Neurogastroenterology and Motility Program specializes in treating infants, children and young adults with a variety of neurodigestive conditions including, but not limited to, achalasia, gastroparesis, cyclic vomiting syndrome, Hirschsprung disease, and pelvic outlet disorders related to constipation.

In this video, Medical Director of the Neurogastroenterology and Motility Program at Children’s Colorado, Jaime Belkind-Gerson, MD, and Associate Director, Alexandra Kilgore, MD, focus on conditions that affect the lower GI and our multidisciplinary approach to care. They also review assessment tools and therapy options used to develop individualized plans for our patients and their ongoing research to improve available treatments.

Clinical Impact of a Diagnostic Gastrointestinal Panel in Children

Many hospitals have transitioned from conventional stool diagnostics to more rapid, expensive and highly sensitive testing modalities such as multiplex PCR gastrointestinal panels, or GIPs. GIPs simultaneously test for bacteria, parasites and viruses. This new technology presents unique opportunities to improve pathogen detection and patient outcomes, but it also poses potential challenges to diagnostic stewardship and high-value care if its overuse raises costs without impacting clinical care.

In this video, pediatric hospitalist Jillian Cotter, MD, discusses a study that evaluated the impact of GIP testing by comparing clinical outcomes between GIP and conventional diagnostic testing in a large pediatric population. Researchers compared test utilization, pathogen detection and time to results between the GIP and conventional diagnostic eras. Dr. Cotter discusses the results and limitations of one of the largest pediatric studies to evaluate the utility of the GIP.

Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease triggered by gluten, is one of the most common autoimmune diseases, affecting 1 to 3% of the population worldwide. Children with Down syndrome have an increased risk for celiac disease, yet without routine screening, 82% of these cases would be missed.

In this video, Medical Director of the Colorado Center for Celiac Disease at Children’s Colorado, Edwin Liu, MD, and colleague Marisa Stahl, MD, MSCS, discuss the importance of routine celiac disease screening in children with Down syndrome. Dr. Stahl reviews what celiac disease is, its prevalence, symptoms (or lack thereof) and typical screening criteria. Dr. Liu discusses research being conducted at the Colorado Center for Celiac Disease in collaboration with the Sie Center for Down Syndrome. This research involves investigating the prevalence of celiac disease within the population of kids seen at the Sie Center for Down Syndrome and comparing the features of children with celiac disease identified either clinically or via routine screening.

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is an autoimmune-mediated attack of the liver cells, with a prevalence of 3 out of 100,000 cases among children. In 2018 and 2019, adult and pediatric hepatologists convened to work on updating the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) Practice Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of autoimmune hepatitis. These recently released guidelines are the first adult and pediatric combined guidelines for AASLD. Cara L. Mack, MD, Medical Director of the Pediatric Liver Center, chaired this initiative.

In this video, Dr. Mack reviews the 2019 AASLD guidelines, which include recommendations for the most effective first-line treatment therapies for AIH, use of second-line therapies and long-term use of steroids after liver transplant for AIH. She also discusses future directions and unmet needs for the management of AIH as well as potential future therapies.

Higher mortality in pediatric liver transplant candidates with sarcopenia

Sarcopenia is a loss of muscle mass and function that occurs in aging as well as in other disease states, including chronic liver disease. There is abundant data on how muscle mass affects outcomes in adult liver transplants. However, data on the role of sarcopenia in pediatric liver disease remain limited. Due to various issues with the markers of liver disease severity in children, there is an urgent need to identify additional markers to determine which children with end-stage liver disease are at highest risk.

In this video, Julia Boster, MD, Fellow in Pediatric Transplant Hepatology, discusses a study on the role of muscle wasting in children with liver disease, specifically how and why it occurs and how it affects outcomes in children who require liver transplantation. Watch to learn about the research study methods, results and conclusions.

The creatine transporter is necessary for intestinal cell function and altered in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can affect any part of the digestive system and is associated with a weakened intestinal barrier. In a recent study published by Digestive Health Institute, researchers found that creatine regulates energy distribution within intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) and reduces the severity of colitis in mice.

Pediatric gastroenterologist Caroline Hall, MD, PhD, discusses her investigation into the functions of the creatine transporter (CRT), in IECs and maintenance of the intestinal epithelial barrier. In an analysis of IEC cell lines and colonoids from CRT knockout mice, Dr. Hall and her team found CRT regulates energy balance in IECs, along with epithelial integrity and barrier function. Mucosal biopsies from patients with IBD have lower levels of CRT, which may contribute to the reduced barrier function observed in patients with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis.