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Biopsies negative but ulcers in ileum?

Q

Qwerty

I've been having blood in my stool and some mucus. Lots of abdominal pain and cramping. Years this has been the case. Colonoscopy a few days back showed ulcers in the ileum. Biopsies were apparently negative. Sooooo... I go back in a couple of weeks to talk about more testing. The nurse said it could still be Crohn's, that is what the additional testing is for. Is this situation common?

I was just so looking forward to finally having some answers and here I am just as lost as before. Has anyone else had negative biopsies and still had Crohn's?
 
S

stylinmama

What were they looking for in the biopsy? You can't really get a "negative" result for Crohn's as there is no one test that definitively says "it's crohns". It's usually *diagnosed* with multiple tests and symptoms.
 
Plittler

Plittler

Hi, I had 2 colonoscopies within 3 weeks of each other both coming back inconclusive. I then had to have a bowel resection as they could not rule out cancer and I ended up being diagnosed with Crohn's. So my answer yes it is completely possible.
 
J

Jacksik

Qwerty said:
I've been having blood in my stool and some mucus. Lots of abdominal pain and cramping. Years this has been the case. Colonoscopy a few days back showed ulcers in the ileum. Biopsies were apparently negative. Sooooo... I go back in a couple of weeks to talk about more testing. The nurse said it could still be Crohn's, that is what the additional testing is for. Is this situation common?

I was just so looking forward to finally having some answers and here I am just as lost as before. Has anyone else had negative biopsies and still had Crohn's?
Click to expand...
Did the probe make it through your cecal valve,,any stenosis?
 
DEmberton

DEmberton

Location
Stuttgart
Can they take biopsies from the Ileum? I thought not as your small bowel is a lot smaller.

The biopsies from my first colonoscopy showed nothing, but the valve wouldn't open so they couldn't see the ileum.
 
J

Jacksik

If the cecal valve won't open,,it needs to be removed, I would think.It's the gold standard for Crohn's disease..it affects the last portion of your small intestines
 
Scipio

Scipio

Well-known member
Location
San Diego
Unlike UC, the ulcers in Crohn's are discontinuous, usually described as "patchy." You can accidentally collect a patch of normal tissue lurking among the ulcers. Thus, it is entirely possible to see an ulcer but end up seeing histologically normal-looking tissue on biopsy. This is why a positive Crohn's biopsy is almost certainly truly positive for the disease, but negative biopsy may or may not be truly negative for Crohn's.
 
X

xmdmom

Do you have the exact wording of the biopsies? Was there any inflammation seen?
Sometimes the pathologists may see inflammation in the biopsy but don't call it crohn's because there were no granulomas seen. However, many (most?) biopsies of Crohn's don't show granulomas so go figure.

If there were ulcers, a biopsy of that area would definitely show some abnormality so either the doctor didn't biopsy the ulcer or the biopsy was not normal.
 
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