Misdiagnosis of Crohn's disease
Alternative diagnoses list for Crohn's disease:
For a diagnosis of Crohn's disease,
the following list of conditions
have been mentioned in sources
as possible alternative diagnoses
to consider during the diagnostic process for Crohn's disease:
Diseases for which Crohn's disease may be an alternative diagnosis
The other diseases for which Crohn's disease
is listed as a possible alternative
diagnosis in their lists include:
Crohn's disease: Hidden Causes Misdiagnosed?
Causes of Crohn's disease may include these medical conditions:
- The exact cause of Crohn disease remains unknown. Current theories implicate the role of genetic, microbial, immunologic, environmental, dietary, vascular, and even psychosocial factors as potential causative agents
- Imbalance between proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory mediators
- Research shows that the inflammation seen in the GI tract of people with Crohn's disease involves several factors: the genes the patient has inherited, the immune system itself, and the environment. Foreign substances, also referred to as antigens, are found in the environment. One possible cause for inflammation may be the body's reaction to these antigens, or that the antigens themselves are the cause for the inflammation. Some scientists think that a protein produced by the immune system, called anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF), may be a possible cause for the inflammation associated with Crohn's disease
- more causes...»
Rare Types of Crohn's disease:
- Crohn's disease of oral cavity
- Crohn's disease of the hypopharynx
- SLE associated with Crohn's disease
- More rare types »
Crohn's disease Diagnosis: Book Excerpts
Crohn's disease: Medical Mistakes
Related medical mistakes may include:
Crohn's disease: Undiagnosed Conditions
Commonly undiagnosed conditions in related areas may include:
Common Misdiagnoses and Crohn's disease
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.
Crohn's disease: Rare Types
Rare types of medical disorders and diseases in related medical areas:
Failure To Diagnose Crohn's disease
Failure to diagnose Crohn's disease may be associated with the following:
- The failure to diagnose Crohn's disease can lead to joint complications (arthritis, joint pain, ankylosing spondylitis, back pain), skin problems (erythema nodosum, pyoderma gangrenosum), liver problems (gallstones, cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, fatty liver, sclerosing cholangitis), kidney stones, venous thrombosis and eye problems (uveitis, episcleritis, conjunctivitis)
- Active undiagnosed Crohn's disease can reduce fertility and increase the risk of spontaneous abortion
- Failure to diagnose Crohn's disease can result in complications such as toxic megacolon, colonic perforation, hemorrhage, abscess and fistulae, anal fissures, anal abscesses, anal fistula or colonic carcinoma
- The longer it takes to diagnose the Crohn's disease, the more damage that can occur to the bowels
- Failure to diagnose Crohn's disease in children can lead to retarded growth or delayed or failed puberty
- Peiranal disease may be unrecognized as a symptom of Crohn's disease but may be considered as an isolated condition
- Often a co-existing intestinal infection (bacterial, viral, fungal etc) is not diagnosed in Crohn's disease sufferers and as a result their symptoms are exacerbated
- Crohn's disease is often not diagnosed in children as the disorder is often considered unlikely to occur and difficult to diagnose in children
- Undiagnosed children often suffer the complications and effects of malnutrition - poor growth, depression, sexual immaturity etc.
- Untreated and treated Crohn's patients face a greater risk of osteoporosis
- Colonoscopies and other imaging tests may still fail to diagnose Crohn's disease. Recent studies using capsule endoscopy may provide a greater degree of diagnostic accuracy
Notes On Hidden Causes Of Crohn's disease
The following may be hidden causes of Crohn's disease:
- Crohn's disease may be inherited in a familial pattern i.e. tends to run in families
- Genetic mutation may also have a role in the susceptibility to Crohn's disease
- Environmental factors such as good domestic hygiene habits can increase to risk of developing Crohn's disease. A clean environment means the bowel lining has not had the opportunity to build up immunity to minor infections. Therefore, the first bout of Crohn's disease is often triggered by an intestinal infection of some sort. After the condition has been triggered, flare-ups tend to continue
- There is unproven suggestion that a diet high in fat or sugars can increase the risk of developing Crohn's disease
- Smoking appears to be a risk factor for Crohn's disease and can exacerbate symptoms
- Appendicectomy increases the risk and exacerbates the symptoms of Crohn's disease
- Immunological defects have been implicated in Crohn's disease
Notes On Wrong Diagnosis Of Crohn's disease
Wrong diagnosis of Crohn's disease may be associated with the following:
- Crohn's disease is frequently misdiagnosed as ulcerative colitis and vice versa as they can be difficult to distinguish due to the similarity of symptoms
- Crohn's disease is often undiagnosed as patients may have few physical signs other than weight loss and general ill-health
Complications Of Misdiagnosis Of Crohn's disease
The following may be complications of misdiagnosis of Crohn's disease:
- The abdominal pain associated with acute Crohn's disease may be misdiagnosed as acute appendicitis
- The acute abdominal pain associated with Yersinia infection can be misdiagnosed as Crohn's disease and vice versa
- NSAID medication can cause a flare up of Crohn's disease
- Anemia due to Crohn's disease may be diagnosed simply as anemia
- Sudden onset of gastrointestinal symptoms due to inflammatory bowel disease such as diarrhea may be misdiagnosed as an intestinal infection (bacterial, viral, parasitic or fungal)
Other Notes On Misdiagnosis Of Crohn's disease
- Stress and lack of sleep can exacerbate Crohn's disease symptoms
- Diverticular disease and Crohn's disease often co-exist
- Patients with Crohn's disease face a greater risk of neuromuscular conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome and weakness, pain and numbness in the limbs
Medical news summaries about misdiagnosis of Crohn's disease:
The following medical news items
are relevant to misdiagnosis of Crohn's disease:
General Misdiagnosis Articles
Read these general articles with an overview of misdiagnosis issues.
About misdiagnosis:
When checking for a misdiagnosis of Crohn's disease
or confirming a diagnosis of Crohn's disease,
it is useful to consider what other
medical conditions might be possible misdiagnoses or other alternative
conditions relevant to diagnosis.
These alternate diagnoses of Crohn's disease may already have
been considered by your doctor or may need to be considered as possible
alternative diagnoses or candidates for misdiagnosis of Crohn's disease.
For a general overview of misdiagnosis issues for all diseases,
see Overview of Misdiagnosis.
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