Clinical utility of balloon expulsion test for functional defecation disorders

I investigated the diagnostic accuracy of balloon expulsion test (BET) with various techniques to find out the most appropriate method, and tried to confirm its clinical utility in diagnosing functional defecation disorders (FDD) in constipated patients.

Eighty-seven patients constituted the study population. FDD was defined when patients had at least two positive findings in defecography, manometry, and electromyography. BET was done 4 times in each patient with 2 different positions and 2 different volumes. The positions were seated position (SP) and left lateral decubitus position (LDP). The volumes were fixed volume (FV) of 60 mL and individualized volume with which patient felt a constant desire to defecate (CDV). The results of BETs with 4 different settings (LDP-FV, LDP-CDV, SP-FV, and SP-CDV) were statistically compared and analyzed.

Of 87 patients, 23 patients (26.4%) had at least two positive findings in 3 tests and thus were diagnosed to have FDD. On receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, area under curve was highest in BET with SP-FV. With a cutoff value of 30 seconds, the specificity of BET with SP-FV was 86.0%, sensitivity was 73.9%, negative predictive value was 89.8%, positive predictive value was 65.4%, and accuracy rate was 82.8% for diagnosing FDD.

SP-FV is the most appropriate method for BET. In this setting, BET has a diagnostic accuracy sufficient to identify constipated patients who do not have FDD. Patients with negative results in BET with SP-FV may not need other onerous tests to exclude FDD.