Testing

When it comes to diarrhea, every patient is different. Depending on what kind of symptoms the patient is having, there are multiple different types of tests that a physician can do. The number one test that most physicians do if a patient comes in with new onset diarrhea is stool studies in order to evaluate if there’s any underlying infection or any infectious cause to the patient’s diarrhea. Other possible studies, including blood tests to check for Celiac disease. Colonoscopies are a very common study which are done in anyone that has any type of alarm symptoms. What I mean by alarm symptoms is any type of bleeding, weight loss, loss of appetite, or chronic diarrhea that’s not getting better. These are all some of the tools that we have in order to help evaluate what the cause of the diarrhea is and subsequently make a plan for the treatment.