close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffTo investigate your signs and symptoms of indigestion, your doctor will likely:
- Review your medical history
- Perform a physical exam
To rule out other conditions that can cause indigestion, the doctor might order tests, including:
- Blood, breath or stool tests. These help determine whether inflammation of your stomach from a bacterium called helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is causing your symptoms.
- Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. After you've been sedated, a long, thin tube with an attached camera is placed in your mouth, then advanced down your esophagus and into your stomach. The doctor looks for abnormalities and may remove some tissue (biopsy) for examination.
- X-rays of your esophagus, stomach and small intestine. Also called an upper gastrointestinal and small bowel series, this exam uses X-rays to make images of the inside of your body. This test is generally only used now if you can't undergo an endoscopy.
- Abdominal ultrasound. Using high-frequency sound waves, an ultrasound makes images that show movement, structure and blood flow. A gel is applied to your abdomen, and then a hand-held device that emits sound waves is pressed against your skin.
- Abdominal CT scan. With this procedure, a dye might be injected into your veins in order to get more-detailed pictures of inside your body. Then, you lie on a table and the CT scanner rotates around you, taking X-ray pictures as it moves.
- Gastric emptying study. If your doctor doesn't find an answer from blood tests, endoscopy or imaging tests, a gastric emptying study might be recommended. In this study, you eat some food that has been tagged with a small amount of a radioactive tracing material that allows measurement of the speed that food leaves your stomach. Some people may have a stomach that empties slowly, (gastroparesis), which can lead to symptoms of indigestion.
References
- Longstreth GF. Approach to the patient with dyspepsia. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Indigestion. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/indigestion/Indigestion.pdf. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- McQuaid KR. Gastrointestinal disorders. In: McPhee SJ, et al . Current Medical Diagnosis & Treatment 2011. 50th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2011. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=6395. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Hasler WL. Nausea, vomiting, and indigestion, In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Online. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2863966. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Dyspepsia. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/print/sec02/ch007/ch007c.html. Accessed March 5, 2011.
- Graham DY, et al. Clinical practice: Diagnosis and evaluation of dyspepsia. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. 2010;44:167.
- Camilleri M, et al. Current medical treatments of dyspepsia and irritable bowel syndrome. Gastroenterology Clinic of North America. 2010;39:481.
- FDA drug safety communication: Possible increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist, and spine with the use of proton pump inhibitors. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/ucm213206.htm. Accessed March 9, 2011.
- Longstreth GF. Functional dyspepsia. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed March 9, 2011.
- Picco MF (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla. March 14, 2011.
Find Mayo Clinic on