Symptoms and signs of upper gastrointestinal disease

Patients with upper gastrointestinal (GI) disease present with diverse symptoms, which are linked to significant morbidity and relatively few reliable signs. Upper GI pathology may present as an acute abdomen, when clinical diagnostic accuracy is approximately 50%. The aim of this article is to provide a systematic approach for formulating a differential diagnosis in patients with common symptoms and signs of upper GI disease, highlighting red flags for serious pathology.