Can Crohn's Disease be diagnosed when in remission

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Since my last question was so long,I'll make it short and sweet and ask another way.
Is crohn's disease able to be diagnosed if it is not active at the time of testing? Can they still find it in there if you aren't inflammed at the time of a barium swallow xray thing?Lol.Sorry for the wording.

Asking because I have bowel wall thickening showing twice now one year apart on ct scan,but when I had my last barium follow through I was symptom free and they didn't diagnose me with anything,and said they don't know why my bowel wall was thickened previously but it didn't matter because it no longer was.Now a year later I have to do another barium swallow because ct scan just showed bowel wall thickening again(in the same place as last time)

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Thanks for your reply^^
I thought of even a better way to convey my question:
Is thickening on your bowel walls permanent,like will it always be thickened even when you are in remission? or is it like inflammation..(it goes away when the flare is over)??

 

[imisspopcorn]

Hi Bubbles,
I think the thickening is permanet. The inflammation causes narrowing of the interior lumen of the bowels. You can see the thickening of the bowels on a CT scan, but to see the how narrow the lumen is the barium swallow is done. Hope that helps.

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Thanks it helps alot.I'm going soon for another barium swallow as the one I had last year showed I was normal..which is odd because the ct scan a week before that shows serious thickening...crazy crazy .. I guess I would assume that maybe it didn't look bad on my barium swallow because I guess the inflammation went away with my symptoms making it look less obvious maybe?Just my guess lol.Thanks again

 

[shazamataz]

My understanding is that thickening is not ALL permanent. But I am no expert. I was told by my GI that my stricture may or may not reduce with getting rid of inflammation. That is it can be inflamatory or it can be scar tissue. Problem is that I have no way of knowing if it HAS reduced because they will only do another scan if I am realy sick, so its a bit of a guessing gfame really. he just said if ni pain/symptoms then it's gone down and was mostly due to inflammation.

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

That's good to know considering what I've been going through.I know what makes me feel ill and I'm going to try to purposly make myself ill the day before my barium swallow this time..instead of going into it symptom free...
Leave it to me to get well between a ct and a barium test...but in my defense it was the hospitals fault considering they put me on prednisone for a few weeks before my scan.Then they wonder where my thickening went to..LOL.Stupid Ohio doctors.

 

[jooles6377]

Hi, I was diagnosed from the Colonoscopy and it showed inflammation however the biopsy wansnt conclusive and my blood never shows any inflammation. My specialist at the time said that this can happen and when on steroids if they reduce the inflammation alot it may not show at all. So it looks like it depends on when they look.

For me they could see it but it didnt show in the above. I had a nuclear medicine test just to double check and again it all grouped at the illieum where he had seen the Crohns with the camera.

I am going for a Barium and another Colonoscopy just to see if it has gotten worse as I am def getting more symptoms this year.

Sorry for rambling but I hope this helps, xx

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Yes it does help.and don't appologize for rambling..even the best of us do so LOL..and thanks again everyone,because now i know to atleast try to irritate things before my test.Atleast then finally someone might know what they are actually looking at instead of giving me diagnosises like they would give candy to a kid trick or treating.lol.

 

[shazamataz]

Eat a big tub of popcorn - that should irritate things nicely!:tongue:

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Popcorn never does anything to me other than make me go into profuse vomiting fits for days..I'm thinking I want to irritate things a bit further down...but might as well have popcorn too...lol.

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Lol.Don't worry about me.I've been through alot worse.It does make me smile to know someone does care enough to worry though...but don't! I've learned what causes it simply by accident..certain foods,or any small amount of alcohol...and any stress...the list goes on,and to me it's worth it to go through some hell,so this doesn't get worse simply because my exams are at times when things are inactive and therefore don't matter to them.

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Well,I go for another small bowel follow through tomorrow.Everyone wish me luck! Lol.

 

[violetcreams]

Good luck.........but I hope you haven't purposefully attempted to induce a flare. That scares me. I'd do anything to stop my condition flaring & can't ever imagine trying to bring a flare on if I felt relatively well.

 

[XoBuBbLeSoX]

Lol,yes I have and yes it worked.Scary I know but it needed to be done.They can't seem to find inflammation on my other tests when I wasn't flaring...only on ct scans when I was,and this will be my first test while I am flaring...which should help better with the diagnostic problems they have been having...and hopefully help me get better treatment in the future..rather than tip toe-ing around a diagnosis for me..and if it goes badly...I'll already be safe at the hospital. I might be nuts,but we have been calling it crohn's then not crohns then crohns again now for a year. I want a difinitive for better treatment for a happier future.

 

[pb4]

For some docs it's hard enough to DX crohn's when the patient is flaring...generally it's much harder when a patient is in remission but if they do see thickening that at least sends of an alarm bell that something isn't quite right, though they wouldn't likely be able to give a confirmed DX based on that alone.