Feasibility Study for the Quantification of Fullness and Discomfort in the Chest and Hypochondrium

Background/Objective: Abdominal examination by medical doctors is undertaken to observe abdominal shape and tenderness, but it is not typically quantified. Our goal was to explore the potential of physical metrics for identifying significant differences between individuals with fullness and discomfort in the chest and hypochondrium (FDCH) and those without FDCH. We utilized a 3D camera and a digital algometer to obtain these metrics. Methods: We screened sixty participants with functional dyspepsia and complaints of epigastric discomfort or pain and sixty healthy participants without any digestive problems as a case-control study. We assessed the degree of agreement with FDCH of the abdominal signs diagnosed by traditional East Asian medicine doctors by performing clinical studies that involved assessing abdomens with the aforementioned devices. Results: Algometric features such as pressure, depth, and stiffness (defined as the pressure-to-depth ratio) were significantly lower in the FDCH group than in the non-FDCH group, with mean differences across locations ranging from -1.47 to -0.86, -8.75 to -4.46, and -0.31 to -0.12, respectively. Therefore, the physical algometric features decreased, the skin stiffness decreased, and the sensitivity increased. The point estimates for the mean differences in the geometric factor of depth between FDCH and non-FDCH across the locations ranged from -2.09 to -1.66, with generally smaller depth values in the FDCH group, indicating a flat or drooping abdominal shape. Conclusions: The algometric and geometric metrics showed differences between the FDCH and non-FDCH groups, and various physical metrics will be expanded to identify other diseases through the collection of more clinical data in future. Trial registration/Protocol registration: CRIS and KCT0003369.