Black CJ, Craig O, Gracie DJ, et al. - There has been no independent validation study of the Rome IV criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), despite being proposed 4 years ago. Researchers evaluated their performance for the diagnosis of IBS in secondary care and compared them with the previous iteration, the Rome III criteria. Complete symptom data were obtained from consecutive adult patients with suspected IBS referred to a single UK clinic. They calculated sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios (LRs), with 95% CIs for each of the diagnostic criteria. As per the findings, compared with the Rome III criteria, the Rome IV criteria performed significantly better in diagnosing IBS in this single centre secondary care study, although the clinical relevance of this is uncertain.