ABSTRACT
Dyspepsia is a very common clinical disorder as evidenced by reports from different countries allover the world. It is the primary complaint in about 15-40 percent of patients seen by gastroenterologists. As defined by an international working party, the term dyspepsia implies a broad symptoms complex including upper abdominal or retrosternal pain, discomfort, heartburn, nausea, vomiting or other symptoms referable to the proximal alimentary tract. So, classification of dyspepsia into symptoms groups has been proposed to reveal differences in course, investigations and medications. However, data concerning the dyspepsia patterns in our community are lacking. The aim of this work was to: 1] determine the symptoms patterns of dyspepsia in a clinic-based study, and 2] to evaluate symptoms in patients with dyspepsia versus the upper endoscopic findings. This study included 188 adult patients with dyspepsia, 131 males and 57 females. According to their symptoms, 35.1 percent of patients were in the ulcer-like group, 28.2 percent in the dysmotilily-like group, 76.6 percent in the reflux-like group and 17 percent in the unspecified group with an overlap pattern in 46.8 percent of patients. There was no sex or age predilection in any of the 4 dyspepsia groups. Isolated symptoms were found in 38.9 percent of the reflux-like patients, 13.6 percent in ulcer like patients, and in 3.8 percent in the dysmotilily-like patients. There was no statistical difference between patients with isolated symptoms and those with mixed symptoms in relation to the age or sex distribution. Abnormal endoscopic findings were recorded in 155 patients including oesophageal, gastric, and duodenal lesions. Gastritis was the most common findings present in 68 percent of patients. Duodenal lesions were significantly higher in male patients. Mixed lesions [affection of more than one anatomical area] were present in 55.5 percent of patients