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Colonoscopy/endoscopy Question Please

catarific

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catarific Contributor
catarific
Posted

Today I had a colonscopy and endoscopy. The doctor said that he could not see any damage but did send a biopsy of my colon to test for microscopic colitis and a biopsy to test for celiac sprue.

My question is - if there were damage to the villi - would that not be visible during the examination? Or is it general procedure to send out a biopsy when a patient tells the doctor about gluten intolerance, food sensitivities, etc.

I had been doing great the past two weeks prior to the exam - but the day before the prep, I had a very, very, bad bout of diarrhea. I told my husband - I could probably now go to the colonscopy without having to prep. Anyway - I was really shocked when the doctor did not see any colon inflammation - yet on his own, (without my saying anything about the flare), he is testing for microscopic colitis. Is this something a doctor regularly might do if a patient has complained of diarrhea for a long extended period and the colonoscopy showing no inflammation?

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mushroom Proficient
mushroom
Posted

If you are undergoing both a colonoscopy and an endoscopy, I think it is great that the doctor checked for as many possibilities as he could think of while he was there. So often we hear of people undergoing these procedures, and the doctor will say, well, no, I didn't check for celiac because I thought it was eosinophilic esophagitis :o

Some things can be seen with the naked eye during the scope, others need to be magnified under a microscope because we are getting down to the cellular level. Only gross damage to the villi with complete flattening can be seen with the naked eye. Same with microscopic colitis - it takes a microscope to see it, so why would he waste the opportunity of obtaining that sample while he was there. At the moment he is trying to rule in or rule out any possibility. So in my book he is a good doc. and you are lucky. :)

catarific Contributor
catarific
Posted
  • Author

thanks for the response. :)

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

Hopefully the doctor took more than one biopsy for celiac. He should have taken six from different areas and even then you can have a false negative. Have they done a celiac panel blood test on you? If they have then you can go ahead and do a trial of the diet as that is needed no matter what the test results say as false negatives are common.

catarific Contributor
catarific
Posted
  • Author

Hopefully the doctor took more than one biopsy for celiac. He should have taken six from different areas and even then you can have a false negative. Have they done a celiac panel blood test on you? If they have then you can go ahead and do a trial of the diet as that is needed no matter what the test results say as false negatives are common.

I did take the blood panel previously which was negative. I opted to do both the colonoscopy and endoscopy - but the colonoscopy showed no irregularities to the naked eye. So that is why he is testing for microscopic colitis. I have no idea how many biopsies he took. It never even dawned on me to question him - but regardless - I still have opted to stay Gluten Free with or without a diagnosis since I feel so much better and have seen such an improvement over the past few months.

cahill Collaborator
cahill
Posted
- but regardless - I still have opted to stay Gluten Free with or without a diagnosis since I feel so much better and have seen such an improvement over the past few months.

I am glad you are feeling better :)

catarific Contributor
catarific
Posted
  • Author

I am glad you are feeling better :)

Thanks so much - appreciate it!

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