TB or crohn's confusion

[shivanna_mahesh]

My wife staying in mysore aged about 35 years, she had abdomen pain , after refer to Dr. Rajkumar Wadwa, Gastroenterlogist, vikram Hospital , mysore. on 03.07.2014, the patient had a pre-history of intestine TB on 2009, she completely cured TB.
after colonoscopy examination Dr. confuse with T.B. or Crohn's disease.
diagnosic reports says Its TB. Dr. started medicine for both. I taken biospy sample refer to second opinion with Dr. Deepak suvarna, JSS Hosp. mysore. he send sample to SRL diagonstic , but report says its T.B. but Dr Deepak suvarna says she has crohn's.

In the month of october Dr. Rajkumar wadwa done one more colonoscopy , he said she has cronh's disease. started Azoran 100mg tablets. then she side reaction of blood counts and admitted hospital. Dr . Rajkumar wadwa stopped all medicine. she discharged hospital after 17 days. she is now taking pantocid, wyselone 10mg, fancol 150mg, pre-biotic and probiotic tablet named enbios,

now she is at home , total normal condition , no abdomen pain , no loose stools. so I wanted diagnose her complete one more time. I need your help in finding Best gastroenterlogist.

 

[araceli]

I am not a Doctor but here is my opinion. Intestinal TB and Crohn's present similar clinic, radiological, endoscopic etc, features. Intestinal TB is very hard to diagnose but it is very important to have a definitive diagnosis in this cases to avoid the complications of using TB treatment in somebody with crohn's or vice-versa. Intestinal TB should be suspected in somebody who has visited a country in which TB is epidemic, India is one of them. Have your wife had skin tb test, gold quantiferon, chest xrays ?

 

[Racoon2000]

Hello
I have Crohn's Disease and I also had active Tuberculosis too. Mine was not intestinal, it was pulmonary. I have researched a lot about TB and Crohn's. I even posted on here back in January before my TB diagnosis. Crohn's and TB can present in a very similar way and causes a massive difficulty for doctors to diagnose. I believe this to be the case for all forms of TB, pulmonary and extra-pulmonary cases. If your wife has already been diagnosed with intestinal TB and has been treated for this then I would imagine that any screening tests for TB will always come back positive and so can show an inconsistent result for diagnosis. My understanding in my own case was that I would always now show positive for TB in blood tests now, because I had it.
Can you have blood tests done to check her C-reactive protein levels? An elevated CRP is not related to TB (so i was told).
I guess it could be very difficult to definitely diagnose Crohn's. My own TB has left some terrible scarring in my lungs. I would suspect that extra pulmonary TB could also damage organs, causing problems in the intestines that could mimic the symptoms of Crohns? It may be scarring in her intestine, or perhaps the intestinal TB sparked an immune response that has now left her with Crohn's disease.
You are quite right to seek another opinion. It is an incredibly complicated situation and you certainly need to get someone who has more knowledge and experience in these situations.
I would like to add that I am not a doctor. I just read a lot about things after my own experiences.
Good luck with the journey. I hope you can find someone to help your wife soon.

 

[David]

Greetings and welcome.

Are you looking for a gastroenterologist only in India or are you willing to travel to other counties as well?

 

[shivanna_mahesh]

India only

 

[David]

Please see this doctor's review: http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=49121

 

[Catherine]

Paging Sid, can you recommend anyone?

 

[sid]

hi shivanna_mahesh , you may consider consulting doctors from the metro cities nearby , you may visit Delhi, they have some good doctors there who are well equipped and have more understanding of crohn's desease. its importnt to know for sure, what the problem is.. you may refer to the list posted above.