DOES ROUTINE ABDOMINAL ULTRASOUND ENHANCE DIAGNOSTIC-ACCURACY IN IRRITABLE-BOWEL-SYNDROME

Objective: The current recommendation that irritable bowel syndrome (I BS) should be diagnosed positively using minimum investigation raises the possibility that some disorders, particularly gynecological, may b e over-looked, Transabdominal ultrasound is now sufficiently sophistic ated to allow assessment of all abdominal viscera for associated patho logy, and this study was designed to evaluate its role in the diagnosi s of IBS, Methods: An ultrasound scan was performed in 125 patients (1 00 females, 25 males) for whom a confident diagnosis of IBS had been m ade, Results: No serious intra-abdominal pathology was encountered, bu t 20% of females and 8% of mates had an ultrasound abnormality, None o f these abnormalities resulted in any additional therapeutic measures, A hepatobiliary abnormality was found in similar proportions of males and females (10 vs 8%), Gallstones were most common (5 vs 4%), bur in no individual were they considered to entirely account for the presen ting symptoms. Eight percent of the women were found to have a pelvic abnormality, but it was not regarded as serious in any of them, Conclu sions: This study confirms that a positive approach to diagnosing IBS is a safe policy, Furthermore, routine ultrasound scanning in IBS is u nnecessary and could be counter-productive by detecting many minor abn ormalities, which can pose further therapeutic dilemmas.