Evaluation of gastrointestinal symptoms in different patient groups using the visual analogue scale for irritable bowel syndrome (VAS-IBS)

BMC Gastroenterology

Research Article

Oskar Hammar¹  Bodil Ohlsson¹  Thomas Mandl²  Mariette Bengtsson³ 

[1] Department of Clinical Sciences, Gastroenterology Division, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;Department of Clinical Sciences, Rheumatology Division, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Lund University, Lund, Sweden;Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health and Society, Malmö University, Sweden;

关键词: Irritable Bowel Syndrome;    Irritable Bowel Syndrome Patient;    Objective Marker;    Functional Bowel Disorder;    Somatization Disorder;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-230X-11-122

 received in 2011-08-26, accepted in 2011-11-10,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIrritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and gastrointestinal (GI) dysmotility disorders have a similar clinical picture, although dysmotility disorders require the attention of a specialist. Patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) have also been described to suffer from IBS-like symptoms. No objective marker is available to distinguish between the patients. A visual analogue scale has been developed for IBS patients (VAS-IBS) to measure treatment response of GI symptoms and well-being in patients with IBS. The aim of the present study was to examine if VAS-IBS could be used to compare the degree of GI complaints in different patient populations, to get an objective marker to differentiate between the patients.MethodsThe VAS-IBS consists of 7 VAS scales, namely, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, constipation, bloating and flatulence, vomiting and nausea, psychological well-being and the intestinal symptoms' influence on daily life. Consecutive female patients suffering from IBS, dysmotility disorders and pSS were asked to complete the VAS-IBS questionnaire when visiting the out-patient clinics. In addition, a control population consisting of healthy female volunteers was included.ResultsHealthy volunteers had almost no GI symptoms, whereas all 3 patient groups expressed symptoms. There was no statistical significant difference between IBS and dysmotility in any of the scales besides vomiting and nausea (p = 0.044). Except for constipation, patients with pSS had less severe symptoms than the others.ConclusionThe VAS-IBS questionnaire could be used to assess the level of GI symptoms. However, VAS scores do not help the clinicians to differentiate between IBS and other dysmotility disturbances.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Bengtsson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.