Diagnostic algorithm of centrally mediated abdominal pain syndrome — does it need changes? According to the materials of Rome IV Criteria

The article discusses the algorithm for diagnosing of centrally mediated abdominal pain syndrome (CAPS), formerly called functional abdominal pain syndrome, contained in the Rome Criteria of the IV revision (2016). Recommendations for the diagnosis of CAPS, mainly based on the compliance of the signs available in patients with the developed diagnostic criteria with a minimum of additional laboratory tests, are criticized, since such an approach is fraught with possible errors. The author considers the diagnosis of CAPS as a “diagnosis of exclusion”, which can be made only after a thorough examination of patients using laboratory and instrumental research methods (including ultrasound and endoscopic), confi rming the absence of organic diseases in patients.

Chinese Herbal Medicine for Functional Abdominal Pain Syndrome: From Clinical Findings to Basic Understandings

Functional abdominal pain syndrome (FAPS) is one of the less common functional gastrointestinal disorders. Conventional therapy has unsatisfactory response to it so people turn to Chinese medicine for help. Currently, we reviewed the whole picture of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) clinical and basic application in the treatment of FAPS, especially the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome, the single herb, and Chinese medicine formulae, thus to provide a solid base to further develop evidence-based study for this common gastrointestinal complaint in the future. We developed the search strategy and set the inclusion and exclusion criteria for article search. From the included articles, we totally retrieved 586 records according to our searching criteria, of which 16 were duplicate records and 291 were excluded for reasons of irrelevance. The full text of 279 articles was retrieved for detailed assessment, of which 123 were excluded for various reasons. The number one used single herb is Radix Ginseng. The most common syndrome wasliver qi depression. The most frequently used classic formula was Si-Mo-Tang. This reflected the true situation of clinical practice of Chinese medicine practitioners and could be further systematically synthesized as key points of the therapeutic research for FAPS.