Abstract
To the Editor,
For contemporary medicine, dyspepsia ( literally “indigestion”) has become an umbrella term for a “symptom complex characterized by a predominant pain or discomfort in the epigastrium” and has been reported to have a prevalence of 5 to 40% in the population (1). Fresh research has also shown that >1/3 of dyspepsia patients test positive for H. pylori infection. Calculating diagnostic and therapeutical costs, a 2009 study demonstrated that the overall financial impact of dyspepsia amounted to 18.4 billion USD, while a study of seven years earlier had indicated a cost impact of 1 billion GBP in the United Kingdom alone (2). Consequently, this gastrointestinal condition significantly contributes to the general health burden.
For contemporary medicine, dyspepsia ( literally “indigestion”) has become an umbrella term for a “symptom complex characterized by a predominant pain or discomfort in the epigastrium” and has been reported to have a prevalence of 5 to 40% in the population (1). Fresh research has also shown that >1/3 of dyspepsia patients test positive for H. pylori infection. Calculating diagnostic and therapeutical costs, a 2009 study demonstrated that the overall financial impact of dyspepsia amounted to 18.4 billion USD, while a study of seven years earlier had indicated a cost impact of 1 billion GBP in the United Kingdom alone (2). Consequently, this gastrointestinal condition significantly contributes to the general health burden.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e2023237 |
| Pages (from-to) | 1-2 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Acta Biomedica |
| Volume | 94 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 5 Dec 2023 |
Keywords
- Dyspepsia
- Middle Ages
- Giovanni Boccaccio
- Decameron
- gastrointestinal disorders