Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms are variable,
affecting tissues outside digestive system and having an important mark
on person’s self esteem; many times patients suffering from this disease
are very depressive and unable to perform their activities. When we
mention inflammatory bowel disease symptoms we have in mind Chron
disease and ulcerative colitis.
Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms list
Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms are represented by digestive symptoms and non-digestive symptoms:
- diarrhea is the most frequent and annoying symptom among the
inflammatory bowel disease symptoms; some patients may have numerous
watery stools,
- constipation: this is an often symptom in rectitis, (patients with
ulcerative colitis complain of constipation, because this disease
affects the rectum at the onset),
- abdominal pain- it is one of the frequent inflammatory bowel disease
symptoms, it can be diffuse, or located in the iliac fossa (Chron
disease affects, more frequently, the terminal ileum, which is the most
distant part of the small intestine, located in the right iliac fossa,
while ulcerative colitis affects rectum in most of the cases),
- stool with blood-it is a common finding among inflammatory bowel disease symptoms,
- weigh loss because of the diarrhea, which stops the intestine to absorb nutrients,
- fever, it is the response of the body to the inflammation of the intestine,
- abnormal communication among different parts of the intestine, or
among intestine and urinary bladder or vagina (in medical practice this
condition is called fistula),
- intestine stenosis (it is one of the inflammatory bowel disease symptoms known as Chron disease)-meaning a narrowing of the intestine lumen,
- blood cells abnormalities: anemia (low number of red blood cells and
hemoglobin), a large number of platelets (a condition that predisposes
to blood clots),
- deficits of vitamins and other nutrients, due to diarrhea, which favors malabsorption,
- intestine perforation,
- digestive cancer.
Non-digestive inflammatory bowel disease symptoms are represented by
different medical conditions: liver disease (cholangiocarcinoma,
primitive sclerosing cholangitis), arthritis, myositis (these patients
need treatment with cortisone, which can determine, as an adverse
effect, myositis), renal failure (due to dehydration), oral ulcerations,
stomatitis etc.
How do we diagnose it? Once there is a clinical suspicion, a
colonoscopy and intestine biopsy are needed in order to confirm the
inflammatory bowel disease and also to distinguish between the two forms
of inflammatory bowel disease (for each disease, there is a different
histological pattern, the macroscopic aspect and the lesions location
are criteria used to confirm which one of the inflammatory bowel disease
is responsible for symptoms).
What is the treatment for this disease? Depending on whether there
are complications, inflammatory bowel disease can be treated with
cortisone (there are schemes of treatment starting with increasing doses
of cortisone, which will be diminished gradually once the disease is
under control), anti-inflammatory agents (like sulfasalazine),
immunosuppressive medication (if the first two types of drugs are not
effective) or surgery if there are complications like fistula, stenosis
or intestine perforation or if disease can’t be controlled with
medication.
What is the evolution of the inflammatory bowel disease?
Inflammatory bowel disease symptoms have a fluctuanting evolution; there are periods with symptoms,
followed by “free” periods. There are medical scales which can estimate
the severity of the disease, using indices like red blood cell
sedimentation rate, heart rate, body temperature, numbers of stools per
day.
If any of the inflammatory bowel disease symptoms occur do not treat yourself and call a doctor.
