EFFECTS OF A BICARBONATE-ALKALINE MINERAL WATER ON GASTRIC FUNCTIONS AND FUNCTIONAL DYSPEPSIA: A PRECLINICAL AND CLINICAL STUDY
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Dyspepsia is a heterogeneous pathological condition characterized mainly by epigastric pain or discomfort in patients with normal endoscopic findings 1., 2.. The occurrence of dyspeptic symptoms represents a frequent reason for medical consultation in primary and secondary care, and it is now well recognized that structural (or organic) lesions of digestive tissues are found only in a minority of patients with dyspepsia 3., 4..
Dyspepsia, in the absence of a clinically identifiable structural
Patients and study design
The patients examined in this study were selected among those with uninvestigated dyspepsia who were referred by general practitioners to the endoscopy service of the Gastroenterology Units of Pisa University Hospital between January and June 2000. Among out-patients with normal upper endoscopy, only those with proven functional dyspepsia were admitted to the study. The inclusion criteria were: (a) history of dyspeptic symptoms lasting at least 3 months before entering the study; (b) presence
Clinical investigation
The group of patients, who met the inclusion criteria and were admitted to the study, consisted of 8 males and 10 females, aged between 25 and 75 years (median age: 52 years). At the time of enrollment (day 0) the prevalence of dyspeptic symptoms in the study group was as follows: epigastric pain, 9/18 (50%); epigastric burning, 9/18 (50%); postprandial fullness, 12/18 (67%); early satiety, 2/18 (11%); feeling of gastric distension, 8/18 (44%); nausea, 4/18 (22%); vomiting, 2/18 (11%);
DISCUSSION
Functional dyspepsia is characterized by a variety of symptoms usually referred to the upper digestive tract, the pathophysiology of which is still poorly understood [5]. At present, pharmacological treatments allow only a partial relief of symptoms in the majority of dyspeptic patients [6], and it has been suggested that some mineral waters might exert an adjuvant role in the medical management of dyspepsia, depending on their peculiar chemico-physical properties [11]. On this basis, the
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