Diagnostic tests for ulcerative colitis are done in stages. First, the physician will want to do some stool tests to rule out harmful bacteria and intestinal parasites, and to look for white blood cells and red blood cells.
The purpose of these tests is to rule out infection with Campylobacter, Shigella, Salmonella or Entamoeba histolytica. If there is blood in the bowel movement, an urgent careful sigmoidoscopy needs to be done to directly visualize the sigmoid, as bleeding often occurs in the lower part of the colon.
However, the mucous membranes of the colon in patients with ulcerative colitis are extremely fragile and the bowel perforation with any procedure such as a sigmoidoscopy or a colonoscopy can be the complication.
Diagnostic Tests For Ulcerative Colitis
This is the reason why the gastroenterologist will not want to do a colonoscopy initially in the acute phase of ulcerative colitis. However, when the acute phase has settled, a colonoscopy needs to be done for colon screening to assess the condition of the entire colon and to look for any sign of colon cancer or polyps, which are precancerous lesions. Ulcerative colitis has a typical appearance visually during the colonoscopy, but biopsies also confirm the clinical diagnosis histologically.
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