Manning Criteria And Rome Criteria In The Diagnosis Of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Comparison Between A Population-Based Study And A Selected Patients Population.

Patients with heart failure often complain of gastrointestinal symptoms, But little is known about the influence of cardiovascular dysfunction on gastrointestinal motility.The aim of this study was test for any influence of heart failure on orocecal transit time.Methods: 19 patients (13 male/6 female) suffering from various degrees of heart failure (NYHA I-III) were studied.They were aged 47-85 yrs.(mean 68 yrs.).18 inpatients (4m/14f) aged 47-86 yrs.(mean 64 yrs) without cardiovascular or gastrointestinal disease served as controls.None was on any medication influencing gastrointestinal motility including calciumantagonists.Patients with diabetes were excluded.Orocecal transit time was assessed by the breath hydrogen test.After an overnight fast the subjects took 10 gm of lactulose solved in 100ml of tap water.End expiratory air was tested for hydrogen concentration every 10 min.up to 400 min.using an electrochemical H2-monitor (Clinical Microlyzer, Stimotron, Germany).A rise of 15 ppm H z over baseline was taken as significant.Statistical analvsis was performed using Student's t-test and Spearman's correlation coefficient.Data are given as means _ SD.Results: The orocecal transit time of the patients with heart failure was significantly prolonged compared to the control group (260-+ 118 vs. 169-+95 min.;p<0.014).The grading of the heart failure showed no statistically significant influence on the orocecal transit time.In the control group the age of the patients correlated (r=0.73;p<0.05) with the 0rocecal transit time whereas in the heart failure group this phenomenon was not overt (r=0.23;p>0.05).Conclusions: These data suggest that (I) orocecal transit time is prolonged in patients with heart failure and (2) in contrast to age-matched controls orocecal transit time shows no correlation with age in these patients.