How to Test for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) normally include abdominal pain with a significant change in bowel health and movements. Suspected IBD patients may experience blood or mucous in their stools. These stools along with blood, urine and tissue samples can be tested for the symptoms of particular inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Instructions

Test for Inflammatory Bowel Disease

• 1

  Read "Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis: Everything You Need to Know" by Fred Saibil (see Resources below). This book includes a guide to symptoms and over 200 pages of information about IBD.

• 2

  Get your blood and urine tested by a gastroenterologist. Gastroenterologists are digestive disorder specialists who can do routine tests for intestinal inflammation, infection, malnutrition and anemia.

• 3

  Get easy to read information about inflammatory bowel disease in "Understanding Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis" (see Resources below). This book is written by a patient and his gastroenterologist, making it a useful guide for doctors and patients alike.

• 4

  Ask your doctor to analyze a stool sample. Stool analysis can indicate whether or not patients have inflammatory bowel symptoms like blood in the stool, infection, parasites and altered white blood cells.

• 5

  Take an abdominal x-ray. An abdominal x-ray can test for inflammation and sores in the abdominal area and organs.

• 6

  Examine your colon and rectum with a colonoscopy. A colonoscopy is a test that analyzes the rectum and large intestine with a long scope. The scope takes pictures with a small camera located at the end and can also take tissue samples to test.

• 7

  Test intestinal tissue samples or biopsies. Intestinal biopsies can be used to diagnose ulcerative colitis and to determine whether or not a patient has tumors or polyps in the intestine.

• 8

  Look at your organs through magnetic resonance imaging, more commonly known as MRI. Radio waves and magnetic pulses give doctors images of internal structures for further analysis.