Diagnosing Crohn's Disease A Tough Puzzle To Master

A disease in disguise, one that mimics other gastrointestinal diseases and a difficult challenge for healthcare providers, diagnosing Crohn's disease is most certainly a difficult task for healthcare providers. Become it mimics so many other diseases, Crohn's disease may initially be misdiagnosed as another G.I. ailments.

Crohn's disease symptoms run the gamut from mild to quite debilitating and these symptoms can vary wildly from individual to individual. This is just another challenge to getting an accurate and timely diagnosis. Another bee in the "tough to diagnose" bonnet is the fact that there are no definitive and firm guidelines that absolutely identify Crohn's disease. Not a fair break!

Currently there isn't one absolute test that your physician can elect to use to definitely diagnose your Crohn's disease, it is simply a matter of taking the time to eliminate other GI diagnosis while trying to correctly identify what in the world is going on in your gut. Kind of like trying to master a 10,000 piece 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.

With those who suffer with Crohn's disease, your body acts as if it is battling an infection, but actually there is no true infection present. So with a simple stool sample review, it can be a bit like opening a treasure chest that tells all the bowel stories your physician could ever need!

Other tests such as 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 may also help your health care provider to determine if you have Crohn's or not. Lab tests such as a complete blood count (CBC) can also tell if you are anemic due to blood loss.

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.

So don't give your doctor a hard time if she is struggling a bit to figure out what is going on with you. Getting this diagnosis right, isn't easy. It is a bit like a big puzzle that has to be put together one piece at a time.

Crohn's disease symptoms can be a bit tricky and yet one of the commonly seen symptoms is bloody diarrhea or rectal bleeding. This bleeding is what can lead to abnormal lab work that beings to paint a picture of anemia because of the blood loss. These two pieces of information are important in getting the diagnosis right. So don't be embarrassed if you are experiencing rectal bleeding. For goodness sakes, tell the truth!

While a colonoscopy is no one's idea of a good time, this procedure, typically performed by a gastroenterologist, can give your physician a more definitive reason to believe that you have Crohn's disease. During this exam, your doctor will insert a flexible lighted tube with an attached camera through your rectum and into your 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.

There are a few downfalls with a colonoscopy, though. It is not a perfect test. Remember that Crohn's disease may only be found in the small intestine and so if that is your story then a colonoscopy simply won't do you any good.

So a colonoscopy may or may be the sure fire hit to tell you if you have Crohn's and so your doc may decide to instead order a flexible sigmoidoscopy. While it is pretty similar to the colonoscopy, the one major change is that this little tube does not contain a camera. With this exam 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. If your physician sees evidence of Crohn's in those last two feet of the colon, then a definitive diagnosis could be made. As with all tests, even the flexible sigmoidoscopy has some downfalls. The bad news is that Crohn's disease can hide higher up in the colon and so if that is the case, the the flexible sigmoidoscopy would be totally useless.

Well, it should be pretty clear by now that trying to definitely figure out if Crohn's disease is the culprit or not, is a bit like trying to discover the eye of the needle in a big ole haystack. So don't get irritated and rush your physician! Give 'em a chance to thoroughly figure it out before rushing to judgment.

Here's the deal. Crohn's disease is a tough diagnosis to nail down and yet with a dedicated and patient-focused physician, together you can decipher what is really bugging you. Inflammed gut, infected gut, either way, your physician can help you gain control of your GI health.

Article Source: http://www.rightarticle.com

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