Misdiagnosis of Diarrhea
Misdiagnosis and Diarrhea
Diarrhea can be related to food substitute: The food ingredient, Sorbitol, is often used as a sweetener
in diet products.
In some people, this substance can lead to diarrhea or other symptom symptoms.
In severe cases, this condition may be called Sorbitol intolerance.
See other causes of diarrhea.
Chronic digestive conditions often misdiagnosed: When diagnosing chronic symptoms
of the digestive tract, there are a variety of conditions that may be misdiagnosed.
The best known, irritable bowel syndrome, is over-diagnosed, whereas other
causes that are less known may be overlooked or misdiagnosed: celiac disease,
Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis (both are called inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)),
diabetic gastroparesis, diabetic diarrhea.
Other possibilities include giardia, colon cancer, or other chronic infections.
Intestinal bacteria disorder may be hidden cause: One of the lesser known causes of diarrhea
is an imbalance of bacterial in the gut, sometimes called intestinal imbalance.
The digestive system contains a variety of "good" bacteria that aid digestion,
and they can decline for various reasons,
leading to digestive symptoms such as diarrhea.
The main treatment is to eat foods containing probiotics, typically yoghurt cultures.
See intestinal imbalance and probiotics.
Antibiotics often causes diarrhea: The use of antibiotics are very likely
to cause some level of diarrhea in patients.
The reason is that antibiotics kill off not only "bad" bacteria,
but can also kill the "good" bacteria in the gut.
This leads to "digestive imbalance" where there are too few remaining "good"
bacteria in the digestive system.
The treatment is typically to use "probiotics", such as by eating yoghurt cultures
containing more of the good bacteria.
See digestive imbalance and probiotics.
Food poisoning may actually be an infectious disease: Many people who come down
with "stomach symptoms" like diarrhea assume that it's "something I ate" (i.e. food poisoning).
In fact, it's more likely to be an infectious diarrheal illness (i.e. infectious diarrhea), that has been caught
from another person.
Such conditions may be transmitted via the fecal-oral route.
Mesenteric adenitis misdiagnosed as appendicitis in children: Because appendicitis is one of the
more feared conditions for a child with abdominal pain, it can be over-diagnosed
(it can, of course, also fail to be diagnosed with fatal effect).
One of the most common misdiagnosed is for children with mesenteric adenitis
to be misdiagnosed as appendicitis.
Fortunately, thus misdiagnosis is usually less serious than the reverse failure to diagnose appendicitis.
Celiac disease often fails to be diagnosed cause of chronic digestive symptoms: One of the most common chronic digestive
conditions is celiac disease, a malabsorption disorder with a variety of symptoms (see symptoms of
celiac disease). A variety of other chronic digestive disorders tend to be diagnosed
rather than this condition.
See introduction to celiac disease or misdiagnosis of celiac disease.
Chronic digestive diseases hard to diagnose: There is an inherent
difficulty in diagnosing the various types of chronic digestive diseases.
Some of the better known possibilities are peptic ulcer, colon cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, or GERD.
Other sometimes overlooked possibilities include Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, chronic appendicitis,
Celiac disease, Carcinoid syndrome, gastroparesis, and others. See all types of chronic digestive diseases.
Widely underdiagnosed- Coeliac disease: Coeliac disease is a widely
underdiagnosed condition as most patients present with non gastrointestinal
symptoms such as tiredness. It is autoimmune in nature and there could be a
genetic factor with one in 10 chance of a first degree relative getting
affected. It presents with a classical triad of diarrhoea, weight loss and iron
of folate deficiency. Duodenal biopsy is the key diagnostic test. It can appear to any age and is associated with type
1 DM, dermatitis herpatiformis, Ig A deficiency, osteoporosis and autoimmune
thyroid disease.
Addison's disease has a good prognosis: Addison’s disease when treated
with adequate replacement therapy has a good prognosis and life expectancy
approximates normal. Lifelong medical supervision is required for signs of
continued adequate therapy and avoidance of overdose and avoidance of
complications such as hyperpyrexia, Addisonian crisis, psychotic reactions and
hyperkalemic paralysis. It must be differentiated from conditions such as
pituitary stalk resection, withdrawal from long term use of steroids, Sheehan’s
syndrome and trauma.
Kawasaki's disease can be misdiagnosed as common childhood ailments: Kawasaki’s disease is a febrile disorder affecting children
below 5 years. It affects mainly the blood vessels but can also affect
the mucous membrane, lymph nodes and skin. Kawasaki's disease is
a self limiting condition but early diagnosis and treatment prevents the
development of fatal complications. Since there are no specific tests
to diagnose Kawasaki's disease, diagnosis is made by exclusion
of other common childhood conditions which have similar symptoms.
It can be misdiagnosed as Scarlet Fever, Measles, Stevens Johnson Syndrome,
Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Toxic Shock Syndrome. A diagnosis of Kawasaki's
Disease can be made if the fever lasts for five or more days and the child has
accompanying signs and symptoms.
More about Misdiagnosis
» Next page: DIARRHEA, ACUTE (Algorithmic Diagnosis of Symptoms and Signs)
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