IBS may be diagnosed with bowel sounds
Nobel Prize winning gastroenterologist Barry Marshall discusses research in which the diagnosis of IBS may be made with bowel sound analysis.
The underlying processes which lead to symptoms of IBS are well studied, well characterized, but not well understood in their entirety. Abnormalities of perception, gut rhythm, stool production, the microbiome, and the neuroendocrine system have all been described. The diagnosis is generally one of exclusion, with a common history and exclusion of other diagnoses. The diagnosis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) using bowel sounds recorded by a noninvasive device could eliminate the need for costly colonoscopies and other testing.
Dr. Marshall won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the role of Helicobacter pylori in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease. You may remember the story…scientists doubted much of his published literature, so Dr. Marshall ingested the bacteria to prove it’s cause and effect.
