PMID: 22351680Feb 22, 2012Paper

Usefulness of history-taking in non-specific abdominal pain: a prospective study of 1333 patients with acute abdominal pain in Finland

In Vivo
M Eskelinen, Pertti Lipponen

Abstract

Nonspecific abdominal pain is the commonest cause of a patient presenting to a doctor with abdominal pain of less than one week's duration. The differential diagnosis of NSAP is not always easy due to many similarities in the clinical presentation at onset and many cases may be misdiagnosed in the initial situation. To the Authors' knowledge, the diagnostic accuracy of history-taking is rarely considered in NSAP, and therefore the aim of the present study was to investigate the contribution of history-taking to correctly diagnosing NSAP in the clinical situation. The accuracy of clinical diagnosis of NSAP was studied in connection with the survey of acute abdominal pain by the Research Committee of the World Organization of Gastroenterology (OMGE). In an extension of the OMGE acute abdominal pain study, 1333 patients presenting with acute abdominal pain were included in the study. The clinical symptoms of each patient were recorded in detail, using a predefined structured data collection sheet, and the collected data were compared with the final diagnosis of the patients. The most significant symptoms of NSAP in univariate analysis were: vomiting (Usefulness Index, UI=0.11, Risk Ratio, RR=2.01), progression of pain (UI=0.10, RR...Continue Reading

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