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Diagnosing Crohn's Disease - Diagnosing A Menace

By: Tammy Foster..

Crohn's disease is one of the toughest gastrointestinal (GI)diseases for healthcare providers to diagnose. The reason for this is because it is like a Trojan horse, hiding away while mimicking so many other GI conditions. So of course it is often tough to tell exactly what you are dealing with... mimics others and yet can still manage to make your life miserable!

A battle of the wills... who is going figure it out first...the symptoms of Crohn's disease vary from person to person and naturally that does not make diagnosing it any easier.

There is not one absolute test that your health care provider can use in diagnosing Crohn's disease definitively and so diagnosing Crohn's disease becomes a bit of a puzzle.

As your physician tries to determine if you do have Crohn's or not, one of the easiest medical exams to help on the journey is a stool sample. This sample can help your doctor to determine if your bowel upset is caused by an infection or by inflammation.

In the case of Crohn's disease, inflammation of the G.I. tract presents itself as if there is an infection but there is no infection present. So you can see by obtaining a simple stool sample several possibilities can easily be ruled out.

Your health care provider may also select to do a group of standardized blood tests such as a complete blood count to check for signs of infection and anemia related to blood loss, a colonoscopy, a barium enema, a flexible sigmoidoscopy, a small bowel x-ray study, a capsule endoscopy, or even a CT scan of the abdomen.

A complete blood count can not only tell if are anemic or not, but it can also tell if you have an infection or not. Remember an infection typically points away from the diagnosis of Crohn's.

Well, it is pretty clear by now that getting an accurate diagnosis of Crohn's disease is a bit like hunting for bear with a BB gun! It is a tough diagnosis to put all the pieces together. So no worries if it takes a bit of time for your health care provider to get to the bottom of your symptoms. Just don't give up, your health is worth getting an accurate diagnosis.

A further review of your symptoms may indicate bloody diarrhea and even rectal bleeding. With excessive blood loss your blood work may show signs of anemia. So, here's another piece of the puzzle, if you are anemic it is possible that you are in route to a definitive diagnosis of Crohn's disease.

Your physician may also elect to perform a colonoscopy. This procedure is generally done by a gastroenterologist trained in the procedure. After a stringent bowel prep prior to the exam, your physician and a will insert a flexible lighted tube with an attached camera through your rectum and into the colon to check for any evidence of Crohn's disease.

Of course, just as with all medical procedures, a colonoscopy has its risks. Obviously with this procedure two of the most common risks are G.I. bleeding and perforation of the colon wall, both of which can be extremely serious complications.

Here's the bad news though. Since Crohn's disease might only be evident in the small intestine and not rear its ugly head in the colon, well then a colonoscopy would be totally ineffective in diagnosing Crohn's disease. So, pity, all that uncomfortable exam for nothing definite!

Another medical exam that your physician may order is a flexible sigmoidoscopy. This exam, similar to the colonoscopy, occurs when your physician inserts a long tube into the rectum; however, this tube does not contain a camera. Your physician would use the lighted tube to look at the inside of the last 2 feet of the colon to see if there are any signs of Crohn's disease so that a definitive diagnosis could be made. The downfall of the flexible sigmoidoscopy is that it only looks at the last 2 feet of the colon and so if the evidence of Crohn's disease is located higher up in the colon then this exam is useless.

So diagnosing Crohn's disease is much like putting the pieces of a giant puzzle together, but your physician should be well trained in the research and proper placement of all the puzzle pieces so that you can get a quick and accurate diagnosis.

Because it mimics so many other diseases diagnosing Crohn's disease can be a challenge. However, it is a challenge that is certainly worth undertaking so that you can get back to being a healthy you.

Article Source: http://www.health-fitness-for-all.com

For more important information on stomach pain visit a-stomach-pain.com There's information on stomach pain causes such as Crohn's disease and other articles at www.a-stomach-pain.com

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