Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide Children's Hospital and Raleigh, N.C.-based Rome Foundation have developed the Rome IV criteria, a new set of guidelines to help physicians better treat and diagnose gastrointestinal disorders in children, Medical Xpress reports.
Here are five things to know:
1. The Rome IV criteria, which cover all age groups, are the Rome Foundation's fourth iteration of guidelines.
2. Carlo Di Lorenzo, MD, chief of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition at Nationwide Children's Hospital, led the six-person committee that developed the guidelines.
3. The disorders the Rome IV criteria help physicians to diagnose and treat include:
- Cyclic vomiting syndrome
- Functional nausea and functional vomiting
- Rumination syndrome
- Aerophagia
- Functional dyspepsia
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Abdominal migraine
- Functional abdominal pain
- Functional constipation
- Nonretentive fecal incontinence
4. These disorders affect 30 percent to 40 percent of children worldwide, and currently, functional constipation affects 10 percent to 15 percent of all children and costs health systems more than $3 billion a year.
5. Dr. Di Lorenzo co-edited the forthcoming "Rome IV Pediatric Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders — Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction" which examines the guidelines in depth.