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Doctors Lounge - Gastroenterology Answers
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| joes97chevy
- Thu Apr 17, 2003 5:11 pm |
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my nephew who is 3 yrs old has had severe diarrhea for the last two weeks. He has gone to the doctor and had blood work and stool cultures done, but they didnt find anything. He is now in a childrens hospital being tested for CF I read that this was hereditary, but nobody in their families have it. I was wondering what you might think it could be?? Thanks for your help.
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| Dr. Safaa Mahmoud
- Sun May 18, 2003 9:07 am |
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 There are many causes of diarrhea, infectious diarrheal disease or acute gastroenteritis is one of the most common diseases in childhood. Rotavirus, is one of the most common causes of acute gastroenteritis in childrens. You have said that they have done stool cultures however they found nothing. This because it is unlikely to detect viruses in stool cultures. These forms of infectious diarrhea usually lasts up to 14 days and it is self limited.There are other causes of diarrhea such as irritable bowel syndrome and inherited birth defects, such as cysticfibrosis .The cause of the diarrhea is diagnosed by considering other symptoms like the presence of blood or mucus in the stool, the duration of the diarrhea, and other signs of illness which direct the physician to investigate.Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disorder, mostly of young children , the disease affects the glands that produce mucus, tears, sweat, saliva and digestive juices.Food, especially fat, is poorly digested, and stools may be bulky or fatty due to lack of pancreatic enzymes that helps to digest fat.
Thers are many tests to daigones cystic fibrosis, the standard diagnostic test for CF is a sweat test, which measures the amount of sodium and chloride in a person's sweat. it should be done twice and a consistently high level of salt indicates CF.
wish your nephew best of luck.
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