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    Digestive Tract

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    LILY MAIN
    The document summarizes the process and purpose of a stool examination. A stool sample is collected without contamination and sent to a laboratory for gross, microscopic, and chemical examination to help diagnose conditions of the digestive tract like infection, malabsorption, and bleeding. The examination looks at attributes of the stool like consistency, color, odor, and presence of mucus, blood, fat, or bacteria/parasites. Abnormal findings can indicate issues like inflammation, bleeding, or malabsorption.

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    Digestive Tract

    Uploaded by

    LILY MAIN
    51 views2 pages
    The document summarizes the process and purpose of a stool examination. A stool sample is collected without contamination and sent to a laboratory for gross, microscopic, and chemical examination to help diagnose conditions of the digestive tract like infection, malabsorption, and bleeding. The examination looks at attributes of the stool like consistency, color, odor, and presence of mucus, blood, fat, or bacteria/parasites. Abnormal findings can indicate issues like inflammation, bleeding, or malabsorption.

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    The document summarizes the process and purpose of a stool examination. A stool sample is collected without contamination and sent to a laboratory for gross, microscopic, and chemical examination to help diagnose conditions of the digestive tract like infection, malabsorption, and bleeding. The examination looks at attributes of the stool like consistency, color, odor, and presence of mucus, blood, fat, or bacteria/parasites. Abnormal findings can indicate issues like inflammation, bleeding, or malabsorption.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    51 views2 pages

    Digestive Tract

    Uploaded by

    LILY MAIN
    The document summarizes the process and purpose of a stool examination. A stool sample is collected without contamination and sent to a laboratory for gross, microscopic, and chemical examination to help diagnose conditions of the digestive tract like infection, malabsorption, and bleeding. The examination looks at attributes of the stool like consistency, color, odor, and presence of mucus, blood, fat, or bacteria/parasites. Abnormal findings can indicate issues like inflammation, bleeding, or malabsorption.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    Stool examination is a series of tests done on a stool sample to help diagnose certain conditions

    affecting the digestive tract. This includes infection, malabsorption, and gastrointestinal


    bleeding.
    Before the test, the patient should avoid medicines that might alter the results. This includes
    antacids, antidiarrhea and antibiotic medication. If the stool is being tested for blood, certain
    foods might also be avoided such as red meats and carrots.
    For the collection, the patient is asked to collect the stool in a clean, wide mouth container. The
    stool should be uncontaminated with urine or any other body secretions that might affect the
    result of the test. More than 2 grams of stool is required for the stool examination and the
    container should be labeled with the name of the patient and the date it was collected.
    The stool is then sent to the laboratory for examination.
    The stool examination is divided into three parts which is the gross examination, microscopic
    examination and chemical examination.
    In gross examination, you have to check for the consistency of the stool, such as if it is loosely
    formed stools, watery stools as seen in diarrhea, dry or hard stools as seen in constipations, pasty
    stool that are due to high fat content and ribbon like stool as seen in rectal narrowing and partial
    obstruction.
    The color of stools are brown which is normal and is due to stercobilinogen, yellow or yellow
    green which is seen in diarrhea, black and tarry stools which may indicate bleeding from upper
    GI tract, reddish color which may indicate bleeding in lower GI tract, clay colored stools that
    might indicate biliary obstruction and pale color stool that might indicate malabsorption.
    You also have to check for the quantity of the stool, the normal quantity of stool is 100 to 200
    grams per day. Disorders with poor food breakdown and absorption might lead to large bulky
    frothy and foul smelling stools.
    Next is the odour, the normal odor of the stool is due to indole and skatole which are formed by
    bacterial fermentation and putrefaction. The foul odor is due to undigested protein and excessive
    intake of carbohydrates and sickly odor is due to undigested lactose and fatty acids.
    Lastly is the mucous, it is a translucent gelatinous material in the surface of the stool. It can be
    seen in severe constipation and mucous colitis. While mucus and blood are seen in patients with
    ulcerative colitis, amoebiasis and etc.
    Next is microscopic examination, it is done to detect the presence of leukocytes, RBC,
    macrophages, fats, ova, cyst and other microorganisms.
    Normal stools may contain occasional white blood cells. To look for WBC, the smears must be
    prepared from the area of mucus or from watery stools. Increase number of WBC is associated
    with shigellosis, clostridium difficile, salmonella and campylobacter infection.
    RBC in stool might indicate bleeding in upper or lower GI as evidence by either bright red
    bleeding or black tarry stool.
    Presence of macrophages in the stool is indicative of dysentery and ulcerative colitis.
    Presence of fat in the stool might be cause by malabsorption, deficiency of pancreatic digestive
    enzyme or deficiency of bile.
    Stool pH depends on the dietary intake and bacterial fermentation in the small intestine. Alkaline
    stool might be seen in patients with colitis, diarrhea and antibiotic therapy while acidic stool is
    seen on disaccharide deficiency, fat and carbohydrate malabsorption. The reducing substance in
    the stool is important in infants with chronic diarrhea to rule out lactose intolerance.12

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