SYMPTOM CRITERIA DO NOT DISTINGUISH BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL AND ORGANIC DYSPEPSIA

Design: Retrospective study. Setting: Teaching hospital, Sweden. Objec tive: To find out if various diagnostic criteria could distinguish org anic from non-organic causes of dyspepsia. Subjects: 635 patients prev iously interviewed by computer questionnaire. Interventions: Upper gas trointestinal endoscopy, laboratory tests, clinical examination. Main outcome measure: Differentiation between organic and functional dyspep sia. Results: 106 patients had functional dyspepsia. Of these 83 had u lcer-like dyspepsia, 76 motility-like dyspepsia, and 50 reflux-like dy spepsia. Eight patients had unspecified dyspepsia. Conclusions: There was a considerable overlap between different subgroups, and the criter ia did not differentiate between organic and non-organic causes of dys pepsia though the symptom criteria in most cases showed an independent value in discriminating between different subgroups. The clinical use fulness of the criteria remains to be shown.