Notes before and after the fecal occult blood test

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Tran Thi Vuong - Laboratory Department - Vinmec Hai Phong International General Hospital.
A fecal occult blood test is a test that can detect small amounts of blood in the stool that are invisible to the naked eye. This test is often used to help diagnose bleeding disorders in the gastrointestinal tract (usually the stomach and intestines).

1. The concept of fecal occult blood test

The fecal occult blood test aims to find very little blood in the stool that is invisible to the naked eye. When there is very little blood in the stool, it is possible that your digestive system is having problems, for example: there is a tumor or polyp or colon - rectal cancer. If there is very little blood that can be detected, it is very important for the doctor to find the source of the bleeding and be able to diagnose and treat it correctly.

2. Notes before doing fecal occult blood test

If you prepare well the instructions below, the fecal occult blood test will give good results and the fecal occult blood test should not be performed when you have one of the following problems:
Diarrhea or constipation Constipation Have inflammatory bowel disease (known during colonoscopy)

Having Diverticulitis Gastrointestinal ulceration after colonoscopy Bleeding hemorrhoids During menstruation Food can also affect the results of the test, it is often recommended to fast before when performing the test. The following foods should not be eaten 48 - 72 hours before the test:
Some fruits and vegetables such as: broccoli, radishes, carrots, cucumbers, grapefruit, mushrooms... Red meat. Horseradish. Vitamin C supplement. You should also stop 48 hours before the test, all medications you are taking, especially pain relievers, such as aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, others).

3. Notes after receiving the test results for fecal occult blood

In the average person, about 0.5 to 1.5 ml of blood is lost in the stool every day, and the fecal occult blood test is designed to detect more than this normal amount of blood loss.

If the fecal occult blood test is positive, this means that an abnormal amount of blood has been detected in the stool. The doctor's task must be to find the bleeding site, can perform some other laboratory tests such as colonoscopy or gastroscopy, abdominal ultrasound, abdominal CT Scanner, some more tests. cancer marker...
If the fecal occult blood test is negative this means that no abnormal blood has been detected in the stool and you should continue to have cancer screening as recommended by your Doctor.

4. Routine fecal occult blood test

According to the recommendations of doctors, starting from the age of 50 onwards, a fecal occult blood test should be performed once a year, to monitor and detect early and prevent rectal cancer. If this test is done annually, it may be recommended to extend the time to every 5 years before having a colonoscopy to check for polyps or rectal cancer.
Master. Doctor. After graduating as a general practitioner, Tran Thi Vuong spent 2 years training in microbiology in Japan. With 9 years of teaching experience at Hai Phong University of Medicine and Pharmacy, participating in many domestic and foreign scientific research projects, receiving continuous training in Laboratory Biosafety and Laboratory Quality Assurance. at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, has experience in diagnostic testing for bacterial and viral infections. Currently, he is a doctor at the Laboratory Department of Vinmec Hai Phong International General Hospital.
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