I have a question about the importance of Yersinia Enterocolitica testing. I am just in the process of being diagnosed, though I've been mentioning symptoms for six months now and my colonoscopy is still one month out. I did a lot of reading over the weekend, how I discovered this forum.
I believe that I've either got a mild case of Ulcerative Colitis or a serious case of Microscopic Colitis.
The start of my symptoms was a winter food poisoning incident 7 months ago, one of may circumstances that would be consistent with Yersinia Enterocolitica infection. I spoke with my GI Nurse Practitioner today, via the phone nurse, and they wanted to give me a stool test, which I believe would only work for a current infection.
How important is it that I get this test, I believe the blood antibody one - both for my own case and advancing knowledge of the disease and clinical practice?
Yersinia Entercolitica testing - Newbie Question
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I've never known of anyone who had a Yersinia enterocolitica infection, so I have no idea how to rank the importance of a test for it. Unless you have a naturally high blood iron level (which would be the case if you had hereditary hemochromatosis, for example), I doubt that it would still be causing a persistent problem. If you have blood in your stool, and your colonoscopy exam rules out UC, then you might be a candidate for Y. enterocolitica, but C. diff is a much higher risk than Y. enterocolitica, IMO.If you have never noticed any signs of blood in your stool, then the diagnosis will very likely be MC.
That said, if I were in your situation, and I had to wait a month for a colonoscopy exam, I would probably take the stool test now (which I assume will be a culture test) in order to rule out a few things (such as Y. enterocolitica, C. diff, giardia, etc.) while you waiting for the colonoscopy exam.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
It's not an ongoing problem like C. Diff., rather a cause. Y. Entercolitica is a member of the same family as the plague and though no more severe than any typical food poisoning it is associated with a number of autoimmune diseases, as an after effect.
I've only had two flare instances, in 7 months, where I've noticed blood, one was yesterday, starting during a 3 hour moderate hike with 700 feet of elevation gain.
I suspect that whether or not I had Y. Entercolitica doesn't matter much for current treatment, but I'd still like to know - whether its worth it or not though is another question. Googling Yersinia and Microcolitis gets a number of hits and it does appear the science and clinical practice is still evolving.
I've only had two flare instances, in 7 months, where I've noticed blood, one was yesterday, starting during a 3 hour moderate hike with 700 feet of elevation gain.
I suspect that whether or not I had Y. Entercolitica doesn't matter much for current treatment, but I'd still like to know - whether its worth it or not though is another question. Googling Yersinia and Microcolitis gets a number of hits and it does appear the science and clinical practice is still evolving.