How to Get a Blood Test for Crohn's Disease

Crohn's disease is both an inflammatory bowel disease and a disease affecting the immune system. Patients with Crohn's disease are highly susceptible to anemia and vitamin deficiencies due to blood loss and poor absorption of nutrients. Doctors will often ask patients to get blood tests and test stool samples for blood to check the status of the disease. There are also new serologic marker blood tests that can look for genetic markers and antibodies of Crohn's, making for more individualized treatment plans.

Things You'll Need

• Regular physician
• Laboratory appointment
• Insurance contact information
• Stool sample kit

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Instructions

Get a Blood Test For Crohn's Disease

• 1

  Ask your doctor to have your blood drawn to look for anemia, liver function and vitamin deficiency. Patients with Crohn's disease also need to get frequent blood tests to look for a unusually high white blood cell count and SED rate, both of which indicate active inflammation processes in the body.

• 2

  Make an appointment with your doctor to discuss the blood test results and talk to him about the possibility of having more detailed blood tests done to look for the serologic markers of Crohn's disease. Though the tests that look for the pANCA, ASCA, OmpC and CBir1 Flagelin markers aren't widely available and are, in fact, only done by one laboratory, Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., they are extremely helpful in determining courses of treatment for Crohn's disease (see Resources below).

• 3

  Contact your insurance company to see whether they will cover the cost of these specialized antibody blood tests, which can definitively differentiate between Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis in ways that no other exams can.

• 4

  Contact Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., and find out the process to follow in order to have your blood work processed by the laboratory. Ask the appointment scheduler at your doctor's office to assist in making arrangements for your blood to be sent to the lab.

• 5

  Create a treatment plan based on the results of the blood test.

Get a Fecal Occult Blood Test For Crohn's Disease

• 6

  Avoid eating uncooked fruits and vegetables, red meat and cold cuts for 3 days prior to the hemoccult test. Foods such as beef, lamb, melons and radishes can cause a false positive result. It's also recommended that during this time you take no more than 250mg of Vitamin C per day.

• 7

  Reschedule the fecal occult blood test if you have blood in your urine, are bleeding from hemorrhoids or have taken aspirin or NSAIDs in the past week. Women will also need to reschedule the test if they are having their menstrual period or it has ended less than 3 days prior.

• 8

  Write your name and identifying information on the outside of the stool sample kit as well as on the specimen collection slide.

• 9

  Use a toilet without any bowl cleansers present and flush it twice before use. Use the wooden stick from the collection kit to gather a small sample of stool from your bowel movement and apply it to the specimen slide.

• 10

  Cover the slides carefully and store them in a cool, dark place.

• 11

  Repeat this process for the requisite number of days, as indicated by your doctor. Afterwards, seal all the slides in the test envelope and bring the completed kit to the lab or doctor's office.