Common Symptoms In Diagnosing IBS

IBS or Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a gastrointestinal affliction. It affects about 15 to 25 percent of people. It is a chronic condition affecting the small or the large bowels. IBS can cause different degrees of discomfort and distorted bowel habits. A large amount of patients visit their doctor for gastrointestinal and related complaints, some patients have enormous anxiety regarding factors that cause IBS. Physicians use a confidential diagnosis as an initial and crucial step to provide patients a clear explanation, an effective treatment and therefore reducing the patients’ anxiety. IBS symptoms may be attributed to other factors and conditions in your health and must always be diagnosed by a physician. Patients are usually diagnosed with IBS after exhibiting structural or biochemical abnormalities. Considerations of differential possibilities from the signs and symptoms are observed and given by the patient in order to obtain a positive or negative diagnosis for IBS.

Your doctor will investigate and detail your symptoms and take your health history into consideration and perform a complete physical examination to accurately diagnose the issue. Lab work for blood and stools and endoscopic procedures are also performed to either confirm that it is IBS and to rule out other possible conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease or colon cancer.

Adrian Manning and his colleagues developed the symptom criteria that was used in the diagnosis of IBS in 1978 where the key factor is having the patient describe the symptoms they are experiencing. The criteria is composed of 6 symptoms; first is visible abdominal distension; second is relief of pain with or after bowel movement, third is more frequent bowel movement with the onset of pain, fourth is loose stools at onset of pain, fifth is passage of mucus via the rectum, and the sixth is feeling of incomplete evacuation. Patients that experience the first four symptoms are likely to suffer from IBS. The last two symptoms are not typical for IBS as are the first four although the symptoms are present for IBS sufferers. This was known as the Manning Criteria.

Gastroenterologists in Rome held an international consensus meeting in 1988 where they further specified the criteria for IBS and these criteria were revised in 1999 are now called Rome II criteria. The symptoms that cumulatively support the diagnosis of IBS are as follows in the Rome II criteria; first is abnormal stool frequency. Second is abnormal stool form, wherein stool may be lumpy or watery, and a diagnostic aid called Bristol stool form scale or the BSF-Scale is used to classify the stool form into seven groups because the stool’s form depends on the time it spent in the colon and a parallel between the colonic transit time and the BSF type is obtained. Abnormal stool passage is the third criteria, possible straining and urgency and sometimes a feeling of incomplete evacuation. The passage of mucus is the fourth criteria, and bloating or feeling of abdominal distension is the 5th criteria. IBS needs to be correctly diagnosed and confirmed by a doctor.

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