Our irritable bowel syndrome expert PD Dr. Viola Andresen is a member of the international Rome Foundation for research into functional digestive diseases (or, more recently, diseases of the gut-brain axis). At the end of November, she was one of around 140 international scientists who took part in a final working meeting in Rome to prepare the "Rome V" update.
Irritable stomach syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome and chronic constipation are among the most common digestive diseases worldwide. They are the most important diagnoses of so-called functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs), which are characterized by the fact that people have chronic, sometimes very debilitating complaints in the gastrointestinal tract, but no explanation for the symptoms can be found in conventional routine medical examinations.
In order to better understand these common diseases and improve the diagnosis and treatment situation of those affected worldwide, the Rome Foundation (theromefoundation.org) was founded almost 30 years ago by a small group of highly committed intestinal experts as an international, independent non-profit organization dedicated to the research and teaching of functional digestive diseases. In the meantime, the Rome Foundation has grown considerably. Over the years, an increasing number of experts, both basic researchers and clinical scientists and practitioners, have produced four major scientific papers, each of which has compiled the latest findings on the development of the disease and the latest therapeutic developments. The growing understanding of the disease has also led to the renaming of functional digestive diseases as "Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction" (DGBI). An important component of these Rome treatises (numbered Rome I to Rome IV) are the Rome diagnostic criteria, which form the basis for a uniform diagnosis and are the standard for scientific studies in this field.
As science is constantly in flux, work is currently underway on the next treatise: Rome V. More than 140 international experts from the Rome V Commission held a working meeting in Rome at the end of June lasting several days, which was also attended by the German irritable bowel syndrome expert and coordinator of the German treatment guidelines for irritable bowel syndrome and constipation, PD Dr. Viola Andresen from the MEDIZINICUM in Hamburg, who has been active in various Rome Foundation projects for many years. Participation in the Rome Process is also a great enrichment for everyday patient care, as patients benefit from the latest scientific findings. At the abdominal center at the MEDIZINICUM in Hamburg, patients with irritable bowel syndrome or irritable stomach complaints can find competent contacts for reliable diagnosis and multimodal therapy optimization.
