Electrogastrography in diagnosis of functional dyspepsia

The pathogenesis of functional dyspepsia is still not clear; there are different points of view connected with the criteria of its recognition. Currently recommended criteria of FD (Rome III criteria) favour only two clinical forms of the disease: epigastric pain syndrome (EPS) and postprandial distress syndrome (PDS), but the border between these two forms is not very distinct. The causes of these ailments are generally unknown or ignored. Electrophysiological examinations, for example electrogastrography, give some hopes in explaining the pathogenesis of this disorder. Electrogastrography is a simple, non-invasive, painless and repeatable diagnostic tool of assessment of gastric myoelectrical activity and a method of monitoring the therapy of functional disorders, among them ones of the stomach. The diagnostic value of this examination in functional dyspepsia seems to be significant, and some of the authors suggest that it can be a screening examination in functional disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. In our own work, the preliminary conclusions indicate the association of EPS with bradygastria and PDS with both bradygastria and tachygastria.