How is chronic inflammatory diarrhea evaluated
- Inflammatory diarrheas can be due to idiopathic inflammatory bowel diseases, such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease; invasive chronic infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis or yersiniosis; ischemic colitis; radiation colitis; and some tumors.
- To sort through these diagnoses, the most appropriate tests include colonoscopy to inspect the colonic mucosa visually, colonic biopsy to look for microscopic evidence of inflammation, small bowel radiography or CT scanning of the abdomen; and special cultures for chronic infections, such as tuberculosis or yersiniosis.
- In most cases, the diagnosis will be apparent after these tests are completed
