BACKGROUND

Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a heterogeneous disease, and categorized into postprandial distress syndrome (PDS) and epigastric pain syndrome (EPS). However, many FD patients have overlap of both PDS and EPS. The present study was designed to examine whether FD could be categorized based on the presence of concomitant gastrointestinal symptoms.

METHODS

A web survey comprised of the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS), Rome III criteria of FD, and demographic information was sent to public participants who have no history of severe illness. Factor and cluster analyses were conducted to identify sub-categories of FD based on GSRS.

KEY RESULTS

A total of 8038 participants completed the survey. A total of 563 participants met the criteria for FD, whereas 6635 participants did not have dyspepsia symptoms. The remainder had either organic disease (377) or uninvestigated dyspepsia (463). The cluster analysis categorized participants as constipation predominant (cluster C), diarrhea predominant (cluster D), or having neither diarrhea nor constipation (cluster nCnD). Cluster C and D were significantly associated with the presence of FD [odds ratio (OR) 2.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.06-3.21; OR 2.80; 95% CI 2.27-3.45, respectively]. In FD, especially in PDS cases, the scores of upper gastrointestinal symptoms were higher in cluster C or D than in cluster nCnD.

CONCLUSIONS & INFERENCES: The severity of dyspepsia symptoms is associated with the presence of bowel symptoms especially in PDS. This novel categorization of FD based on concomitant constipation or diarrhea may improve classification of patients.