Sigmoidoscopy
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Sigmoidoscopy
I just got my CC diagnosis yesterday, based on biopsies from a sigmoidoscopy last week. While the Dr. was doing the scope, he said that I had an "advanced colitis," and said it wasn't like a collagenous colitis (which I had never heard of before that). He showed me the difference between the normal parts of my colon, and then the affected parts, which were blotched red and whitish, and had white pustules in the wall of the colon. After reading about CC, my understanding is that they call it microscopic because it isn't visible with the naked eye, but has to be diagnosed using a microscope. Does anyone know whether this is this always the case, or can there also be visible inflammation? I just want to be sure they haven't missed something. Thanks!
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Gabes-Apg
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welcome Pidgie
maybe it is ulcerative colitis
http://www.cdd.com.au/pages/disease_inf ... litis.html
so far as if CC/inflammation etc being visable to the naked eye, can depend on the knowledge of the specialist doing the scope, and how many times they have diagnosed CC.
maybe it is ulcerative colitis
http://www.cdd.com.au/pages/disease_inf ... litis.html
so far as if CC/inflammation etc being visable to the naked eye, can depend on the knowledge of the specialist doing the scope, and how many times they have diagnosed CC.
Gabes Ryan
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
"Anything that contradicts experience and logic should be abandoned"
Dalai Lama
Hi,
Welcome to our Internet family. Regarding whether or not the inflammation associated with MC can be seen with the naked eye during a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy exam — as Gabes posted, the answer is yes . . . providing the clinician knows what to look for. I could see the pattern of inflammation in my colon on the monitor screen during my colonoscopy exam. But at the time (this was over 16 years ago), neither I nor my doctor knew what we were seeing. The inflamed areas show up as randomly-scattered patches of slightly darker shades of pink on the light pink background of a normal colon. If the doctor takes biopsy samples from these darker patches then he or she will not miss the MC diagnosis by accidentally taking biopsy samples from the wrong (uninflamed) areas.
Regarding the white spots in the mucosa of your lower colon or rectum, I'm not sure what he means by "advanced colitis". I'm aware of at least 12 different types of microscopic colitis, plus Crohn's and UC, ischemic colitis, and a few others, but I've never heard of anyone using the term "advanced colitis" to describe an IBD. I'm guessing he used that term because he didn't understand what he was looking at through the scope.
Did you by any chance use sodium phosphate solution rather than a polyethylene glycol-based cleanout solution? If so, it can cause the type of lesions that you described. Do those inflamed areas look anything like any of the images in the article at the following link?
http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0 ... xt?rss=yes
The research article at the following link shows that it happens in slightly over 3 % of cases.
http://www.giejournal.org/article/S0016 ... 0/fulltext
I hope that some of this is helpful. And again, welcome aboard and please feel free to ask anything.
Tex
Welcome to our Internet family. Regarding whether or not the inflammation associated with MC can be seen with the naked eye during a sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy exam — as Gabes posted, the answer is yes . . . providing the clinician knows what to look for. I could see the pattern of inflammation in my colon on the monitor screen during my colonoscopy exam. But at the time (this was over 16 years ago), neither I nor my doctor knew what we were seeing. The inflamed areas show up as randomly-scattered patches of slightly darker shades of pink on the light pink background of a normal colon. If the doctor takes biopsy samples from these darker patches then he or she will not miss the MC diagnosis by accidentally taking biopsy samples from the wrong (uninflamed) areas.
Regarding the white spots in the mucosa of your lower colon or rectum, I'm not sure what he means by "advanced colitis". I'm aware of at least 12 different types of microscopic colitis, plus Crohn's and UC, ischemic colitis, and a few others, but I've never heard of anyone using the term "advanced colitis" to describe an IBD. I'm guessing he used that term because he didn't understand what he was looking at through the scope.
Did you by any chance use sodium phosphate solution rather than a polyethylene glycol-based cleanout solution? If so, it can cause the type of lesions that you described. Do those inflamed areas look anything like any of the images in the article at the following link?
http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0 ... xt?rss=yes
The research article at the following link shows that it happens in slightly over 3 % of cases.
http://www.giejournal.org/article/S0016 ... 0/fulltext
I hope that some of this is helpful. And again, welcome aboard and please feel free to ask anything.
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.
Looking at my Colonoscopy results it seems my doctor could see something with the naked eye because he wrote, 'Decreased mucosa vascular pattern in the entire examined colon. Awaiting pathology results to exclude Microscopic colitis.' I am not sure what that all meant but he must have had some indication there was an issue. Then the pathology results did not rule out MC but showed that I had LC.
‘I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.’ – Martin Luther King Jr
Thank you for all of your input! Yes, the doctor did seem a bit perplexed by what he was seeing. All he could really say that it was some form of colitis (he used the term "advanced colitis"), and he said that it didn't jump out at him that it looked like CD or UC. He felt that it looked more like infectious colitis, but I tested negative on bacteria, viruses, etc. I had magnesium citrate for the prep, followed by an enema. It just seems like all of the online sources describe MC as being visible only under microscopy, and this was very clearly visible even to me on the monitor. The doctor seems to have the attitude that CC isn't that big of a deal, and that it usually self-limiting after a month or two. But, as I, and most of the people on this forum have experienced, it is a really big deal, and can have a life-changing impact.