Misdiagnosis of Peptic Ulcer
Alternative diagnoses list for Peptic Ulcer:
For a diagnosis of Peptic Ulcer,
the following list of conditions
have been mentioned in sources
as possible alternative diagnoses
to consider during the diagnostic process for Peptic Ulcer:
Diseases for which Peptic Ulcer may be an alternative diagnosis
The other diseases for which Peptic Ulcer
is listed as a possible alternative
diagnosis in their lists include:
Peptic Ulcer: Hidden Causes Misdiagnosed?
Causes of Peptic Ulcer may include these medical conditions:
Peptic Ulcer Diagnosis: Book Excerpts
Peptic Ulcer: Medical Mistakes
Related medical mistakes may include:
Peptic Ulcer: Undiagnosed Conditions
Commonly undiagnosed conditions in related areas may include:
Discussion of diagnosis/misdiagnosis of Peptic Ulcer:
Changing medical belief and practice takes time.
For nearly 100 years, scientists and doctors thought that ulcers were
caused by stress, spicy food, and alcohol. Treatment involved bed rest and
a bland diet. Later, researchers added stomach acid to the list of causes
and began treating ulcers with antacids.
Since H. pylori was
discovered in 1982, studies conducted around the world have shown that
using antibiotics to destroy H. pylori cures peptic ulcers. The
prevalence of H. pylori ulcers is changing. The infection is
becoming less common in people born in developed countries. The medical
community, however, continues to debate H. pylori's role in peptic
ulcers. If you have a peptic ulcer and have not been tested for H.
pylori infection, talk to your doctor. (Source: excerpt from H_ pylori and Peptic Ulcer: NIDDK)
Common Misdiagnoses and Peptic Ulcer
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.
Abdominal pain in the elderly: Abdominal pain in the elderly could be due to a wide range
of diseases. The most common ones that have to be kept in mind in order not to
miss the diagnosis include ischemic events, emboli, cancers and diverticula. Ischemic
events such as rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm, mesenteric ischemia
must be diagnosed as soon as possible as these conditions are medical
emergencies if missed out can prove to be fatal. Other conditions include perforated
peptic ulcer, biliary disorders, diverticulitis, strangulated hernia and
carcinoma of the colon.
Common case of dyspepsia: Dyspepsia is a difficult and vague symptom evaluate and requires careful questioning. The discomfort may sometimes amount to pain and some of the conditions to be kept in mind in order to diagnose dyspeptic patients include peptic ulcer, pancreatitis, gastro- oesophageal reflux, upper gastrointestinal malignancies, hepatitis, drug reactions, alcohol effect and stress. Heartburn is to be considered as myocardial ischemia unless proven otherwise.
Peptic Ulcer: Rare Types
Rare types of medical disorders and diseases in related medical areas:
Medical news summaries about misdiagnosis of Peptic Ulcer:
The following medical news items
are relevant to misdiagnosis of Peptic Ulcer:
General Misdiagnosis Articles
Read these general articles with an overview of misdiagnosis issues.
About misdiagnosis:
When checking for a misdiagnosis of Peptic Ulcer
or confirming a diagnosis of Peptic Ulcer,
it is useful to consider what other
medical conditions might be possible misdiagnoses or other alternative
conditions relevant to diagnosis.
These alternate diagnoses of Peptic Ulcer may already have
been considered by your doctor or may need to be considered as possible
alternative diagnoses or candidates for misdiagnosis of Peptic Ulcer.
For a general overview of misdiagnosis issues for all diseases,
see Overview of Misdiagnosis.
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