AIM To investigate how individuals fulfilling the Rome II criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) spontaneously described their symptoms. METHOD From a general population, 1,244 randomly sampled adults were asked to describe their gastrointestinal symptoms (if any) verbally, in their own words, at a semi-structured interview. Their own descriptions were sorted into five symptom clusters. ...

Functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), the most common diagnoses in gastroenterology are recognized by morphological and physiological abnormalities that often occur in combination including motility disturbance, visceral hypersensitivity, altered mucosal and immune function, altered gut microbiota and altered central nervous system processing. Research on these gut-brain interaction di...

BACKGROUND Constipation is a chronic problem in many patients all over the world. OBJECTIVE - To evaluate the effect of consumption of a probiotic fermented milk beverage containing Bifidobacterium animalis on the symptoms of constipation. METHODS - This randomized, double-blind controlled trial included 49 female patients aged 20 to 50 years and diagnosed with constipation according to the...

introduction: dyspepsia, gastroesophageal reflux disease (gerd) and irritable bowel syndrome (ibs) are the most common gastrointestinal diseases. their prevalence is 18-30%, 25-30% and 10-15% in western communities and 8-14%, 3-7% and 3-5% in eastern countries, respectively. there is no adequate data about their prevalence in our country. the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of ...

BACKGROUND Epidemiological studies have shown a greater prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) among first-degree relatives of patients diagnosed of these diseases. However, it is not known whether relatives of patients with IBD have a greater prevalence of IBS than the general population. AIMS To analyse the prevalence of IBS among first-degree rela...

It is a great pleasure to introduce the commentaries by Drs Kellow and Quigley on the pros and cons of the new Rome III criteria. Perhaps most of the readership is only familiar with these published diagnostic criteria. However, the Rome Foundation has a larger mission and directive to move the field of functional gastrointestinal (GI) and motility disorders forward through research and educati...

Dyspepsia is currently defined by Rome III criteria for the diagnosis of functional gastroin‐ testinal disorders (FGIDs), as the presence of one or more of the following symptoms: both‐ ersome postprandial fullness, early satiation, epigastric pain and epigastric burning [1] These are symptoms thought to originate from the gastroduodenal region. Bloating and nausea often coexist with dyspepsia ...