title: [Factors influencing the diagnose on causes of dyspepsia in central area of Shaanxi province].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the proportions of functional dyspepsia (FD) and structural diseases within the dyspeptic outpatients in hospitals of different ranking in central area Shaanxi province, and to explore the safety in adopting "symptom and treatment" algorithm used in Western countries.
  
  
  METHODS
  A clinical epidemiology survey was carried out by means of a stratified sample of 3 019 dyspeptic outpatients through standardized questionnaire. All of the patients were followed for 4 - 24 weeks, and finally received their diagnoses through a consistent criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Proportionally, FD in all the outpatients took up 44.8% with 44.7% benign organic causes and 10.5% malignant diseases. In the patients who had marked alarm symptoms, the proportion of benign and malignant diseases rose to 52.1% and 29.2%, respectively. They were significantly higher than those without alarm symptoms (39.2%, 2.9%) (P < 0.01). All of the dyspeptic patients were divided into 7 groups according to different ages. 64.5% of FD patients were younger than 25 years and the rate of FD declined with age. It was found that only four patients below 35 years old had malignance. The number of cases increased significantly in age 35 - 45 group and reached 30.8% in 65 - 74 group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were some differences noticed within dyspeptic patterns between local area in China and Western countries, and the "symptom and treatment" approach was not entirely suitable to the local area in China.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710004, China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Kuan-xue
authors.initials: KX
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jin-yan
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Bo-yuan
authors.initials: BY
authors.lastname: Men
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D004415:Dyspepsia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D015154:Esophageal Motility Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D013272:Stomach Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*