Abstract
With the high prevalence of functional dyspepsia in the world, it was difficult to get objective diagnosis, treatment and assessment for the reason that there were many different symptoms and signs. The purpose of this study is to develop a standard instrument of pattern identification for functional dyspepsia which will be applied to clinical research. The items and structure of the instrument were based on review of published literature. The advisor committee on this study was organized by 11 oriental division of gastroenterology professors of oriental medical colleges nationwide. The experts discussed developing the instrument, and we also took professional advices by e-mail. We divided the symptoms and signs of functional dyspepsia into 6 pattern identification, such as disharmony of liver and stomach, retention of undigested food, damp-heat in the spleen and stomach, simultaneous occurrence of cold and heat syndromes, deficiency and cold of the spleen and the stomach, and insufficiency of stomach eum. We got the mean weights to each symptom of six pattern identification which had been scored on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 to 5 by the 11 experts. We made out the Korean instrument of the pattern identification composed of 45 questions for functional dyspepsia. Although there are some limitations in our study, the instrument is meaningful and certain worth of its own. We hope to improve the instrument through the further clinical studies and discussions.
