Clinical presentation of the irritable bowel syndrome compared with duodenal ulcer in the Saudi

ABSTRACT

The symptoms and signs of irritable bowel syndrome in 59 patients were compared with those in 50 patients with endoscopically proven duodenal ulcer, using a questionnaire admininistered before diagnosis. The most significant clinical feature of irritable bowel syndrome were left-sided abdominal pain that was colicky in nature, eased by defection, and accompanied by excessive flatulence and headache; the only positive physical finding was tenderness over the sigmoid colon. The most significant features of duodenal ulcer were intermittent pain either in the epigastrium or right hypochondrium, with nocturnal awakening and positive pointing sign elicited on examination. The features for irritable bowel syndrome and peptic ulcer were distinctive for each. The symptoms of irritables bowel syndromes, in particular, differed in some respects from those observed for the syndrome in the West