Clinical–alimentary tractRelationship of Abdominal Bloating to Distention in Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Effect of Bowel Habit
Section snippets
Subjects
Fifty female patients who fulfilled Rome II criteria for IBS20 and specifically complained of bloating as part of their symptom complex were recruited from the outpatient department of the South Manchester University Hospital, of whom 20 had IBS-D (age, 25–62 y; mean, 38.1 y), 20 had IBS-C (age, 18–73 y; mean, 44.2 y), and 10 had an alternating bowel habit (IBS-alt) (age, 21–59 y; mean, 36.2 y). All patients underwent appropriate investigations to exclude organic disease21 and did not show any
Demographic Characteristics
The demographic and baseline characteristics of participants are summarized in Table 1. Analyses for homogeneity showed no relevant differences in these between-subject groups.
IBS patients vs healthy volunteers
IBS patients reported significantly more bloating both at the beginning and the end of day 1, and on waking on day 2 compared with healthy volunteers (P < .0001) (Figure 1). In addition, the IBS patients, but not the healthy volunteers, reported more severe bloating at the end of day 1 compared with both the beginning of
Discussion
This study objectively measured abdominal girth in IBS patients over a 24-hour period and assessed the relationship between bloating, distention, and bowel habit. It confirms that abdominal distention is a real phenomenon in IBS patients, with a proportion of patients showing a substantial increase in girth over the course of a day, which can reach up to 12 cm. Only in patients with IBS-C, however, was there a strong direct correlation between the symptom of bloating and distention.
The
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Supported by an educational grant from Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Basel, Switzerland.