Background/Aims: We investigated the validation of Rome III criteria for diagnosis of functional gastrointestinal disorders in Koreans. Methods: Total of 157 patients who visited our hospital in the first time were enrolled. They filled out the Rome III diagnostic questionnaires of ROME Foundation. We evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of Rome III criteria in discriminating functional gastrointestinal disorders from organic diseases. Factor analysis was used to identify symptom clusters of the patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders. Results: The percentage of organic or functional disorders was 12% (19 patients) and 88% (138 patients) respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of Rome III criteria in discriminating functional gastrointestinal disorders from organic diseases for upper gastrointestinal tract was 60% and 53% each, and for lower gastrointestinal tract was 80% and 50% each. The percentage of overlap syndrome of functional gastrointestinal disorders was 49%. Twelve factors were detected except functional dysphagia, mixed-irritable bowel syndrome, proctalgia fugax in factor analysis. Conclusions: The Rome III criteria could be applied to Korean patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders. The Rome III criteria in the diagnosis of lower gastrointestinal tract in Korean was found to be relatively sensitive.ope
