Diagnostic Tests for Ulcerative Colitis
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[edit] Diagnostic tests for ulcerative colitis
The physician will want to do some stool tests to rule out bacteria and parasites, and to look for white blood cells and red blood cells.
The purpose of these tests is to rule out Campylobacter, Shigella and Salmonella infections as well as Entamoeba histolytica. If frank blood is in the bowel movements, an urgent careful sigmoidoscopy needs to be done to directly visualize the sigmoid, the lower part of the colon.
The reason the physician needs to be careful is that the mucous membranes are extremely fragile when ulcerative colitis is present and the bowel can easily be perforated.
This is the reason why the gastroenterologist will not do a colonoscopy in the acute phase of ulcerative colitis. However, when the acute phase has settled down a colonoscopy needs to be done to assess the condition of the entire colon and to screen for any cancerous or precancerous lesions. Inflammatory changes and swelling of the lining of the colon is found with colonoscopy.
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