Specifically their report regarding FY2006 (p78) states:
"Adhesion related disorder.--This little known condition commonly leads to abnormal attachments between the organs inside the abdomen. The adhesions generally are composed of scar tissue resulting from previous operations. Very little is known about why adhesions form more aggressively in some people. Diagnosis of the disease is typically difficult, and surgical correction is often unsuccessful. The Committee encourages NIDDK to investigate this disease, supporting research to find treatments and understand causation and to communicate these findings to broaden knowledge of the disease in the medical community."
The report, dated September 7th 2004 may be viewed by Going to:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=108_cong_reports&d ocid=f:hr636.pdf
Although the report does not earmark any funds for this research, it represents an important milestone in our campaign of awareness and research into ARD, a term first used by the IAS. It represents the tireless efforts of many IAS volunteers who have written to their legislators, newspapers and TV stations about ARD and its devastating consequences.
As part of the budgetary process, all government agencies that may be affected by recommendations made by the Committee on Appropriations are required to respond regarding the action that they will be taking. Accordingly, in their Congressional Justification 2006, stated
"Future plans for NIDDK research on IBD and other adhesion-related disorders will include the continued pursuit of new drug therapies, the development of surrogate markers of disease, the maximization of research investment in animal models of disease, and the establishment of a repository that will collect and make available to investigators various types of human samples including blood, biopsied tissue, genetic material, and datasets."
This response (dated 2/11/05) may be viewed here: http://www.niddk.nih.gov/federal/pdf/NIDDK_fy06_CJ.pdf
We spoke today with NIDDK-NIH about our ideas regarding possible avenues for ARD research. They were very helpful in providing us with information that would help us pursue these avenues with NIH-NIDDK backing.
[moderator note: if the URLs do not come through correctly, go to http://www.adhesions.com and click on What's New. You will find the links listed there.}