Measuring episodic abdominal pain and disability in suspected sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.

AIM

To evaluate the reliability of an instrument that measures disability arising from episodic abdominal pain in patients with suspected sphincter of Oddi dysfunction (SOD).

METHODS

Although several treatments have been utilized to reduce pain and associated disability, measurement tools have not been developed to reliably track outcomes. Two pilot studies were conducted to assess test-retest reliability of a newly developed instrument, the recurrent abdominal pain intensity and disability (RAPID) instrument. The RAPID score is a 90-d summation of days where productivity for various daily activities is reduced as a result of abdominal pain episodes, and is modeled after the migraine disability assessment instrument used to measure headache-related disability. RAPID was administered by telephone on 2 consecutive occasions in 2 consenting populations with suspected SOD: a pre-sphincterotomy population (Pilot I, n = 55) and a post-sphincterotomy population (Pilot II, n = 70).

RESULTS

The average RAPID scores for Pilots I and II were: 82 d (median: 81.5 d, SD: 64 d) and 48 d (median: 0 d, SD: 91 d), respectively. The concordance between the 2 assessments for both populations was very good: 0.81 for the pre-sphincterotomy population and 0.95 for the post-sphincterotomy population.

CONCLUSION

The described pilot studies suggest that RAPID is a reliable instrument for measuring disability resulting from abdominal pain in suspected SOD patients.