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Experts have long recommended that diagnoses of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) be based on symptoms and physical examination. Various sets of diagnostic criteria have been proposed, including the Manning criteria; the Kruis scoring system; and the Rome I, II, and III criteria. Now, researchers have performed a prospective, systematic survey of the literature to estimate the predictive value of these various criteria.
The review involved 10 studies that included a total of 2355 patients with lower gastrointestinal symptoms. Absence of abdominal pain was associated with organic etiologies rather than with IBS, and most of the other traditional IBS symptoms were found to have limited predictive value individually, as judged by their likelihood …