Clinical value of ultrasound in the evaluation of dyspepsia in primary health care

Objective. In general practice, upper abdominal ultrasound (US) is widely used in the evaluation of patients with dyspepsia. However, there is a dearth of published data on the role of US in the dyspepsia work-up. There are no data on the use of US as a follow-up study in functional dyspepsia. The aims of this study were to assess the role of US in evaluating dyspepsia, and to assess the long-term clinical relevance of minor findings revealed by US in patients with functional dyspepsia. Material and methods. Four hundred consecutive dyspeptic patients were recruited. At baseline, all patients underwent gastroscopy and US. Patients were divided into two groups: “endoscopy-negative patients” and “endoscopy-positive patients”. “The endoscopy-negative” group included all cases in which the final diagnoses could not be settled after gastroscopy. US was repeated after 6–7 years in patients who had functional dyspepsia. Results. In the endoscopy-negative group, gallstones were detected in 21 patients, but this w...