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.

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.

There are several medical procedures that can be performed that can help either to rule out or to confirm Crohn's disease. One of the easiest and least expensive and least invasive tests is an examination of a stool sample. By examining the stool sample your medical provider can determine whether the diarrhea and bowel disturbances that you are experiencing are associated with inflammation or are the result of an infection.

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.

Once your test results come back, your health care provider will review them thoroughly before discussing them with you. One of the key things to remember is that if your additional blood work indicates that an infection is present then it is less likely that you have Crohn's disease. However, if your blood work shows that anemia is present, then Crohn's disease is more of a possibility.

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.

Other symptoms of Crohn's may include bloody diarrhea and even rectal bleeding. Here's where the CBC can tell the real story. With excessive blood loss your blood work may show signs of anemia. So detective doc, just got one more piece of the mystery fitting into place. If your lab work shows indications of anemia, then when combined with your other symptoms it is quite possible that a diagnosis of Crohn's disease is in your future.

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.

Here's the deal, there are always risks with any health care procedure and the same is true with a colonoscopy. So make sure that you discuss all the risks well with your physician prior to consenting to any procedure. A colonoscopy can leave you with a bowel perforation or even gastrointestinal bleeding.

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.

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.

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