What blood work is normally done in suspected crohn's??

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I am going to see my regular doctor and want to ask her to check some things in my blood. She always takes blood from me but usually only checks for the routine things. I do have her check my VitD and B12 now and then too. What all do they check for in terms of crohns disease? I also know about the C-reactive protein too, I have had that one done on a couple occasions as well...
 
Some things they check usually in the lab.

Complete blood counts usually, hemoglobin, hematocrit, MCH etc

Leukocyte profiles. Percentages of lymfocte, monocyte, basofiles, neutrophil,.. and their absolute counts.

Thrombocyte counts to check on coagulation issues.

Iron too usually.

Immunoglobulin issues, deficiencies, reactions. etc.


For diagnosis, I think it's not very reliable to diagnose crohn's disease through blood, CRP, ASCA, Quantiferon for TB etc.

CRP is high in a number of diseases and it doesn't accurately reflect inflammation in the instestine I feel.

ASCA (anti-saccharomyces) is not reliable to diagnose crohn's diseae.

Quantiferon or other tests for TB is usually negative since intestinal TB is rare in the West, but a TB test should be done regardless to rule it out.

Diagnose should be with biopsy with lab results through histology, looking at granuloma and crypt etc to diagnose crohn's disease.
 
ESR is another blood test used to look for inflammation in the body. There is also a stool test called calprotectin which does the same. The inflammation found is not necessarily crohns it can be anywhere in the body.
 
The blood tests they usually give me to see if I'm flaring is a complete cbc, I believe thats what its called, its to mainly check my white blood cell count, I seem to have a high white blood cell count when I'm flaring, and they test for my inflammation levels.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I have had the C-reactive protein and sed rate and fecal Calprotectin done a couple months ago. I am going ask my regular doc to repeat them though when I see her Monday. Thank again..
 
I had a bunch of immunoglobulin tests to rule out other things like celiac.
My doc also ordered an IBD panel, but it's not really a diagnostic test, it was more to confirm he was on the right track with making the diagnosis of crohn's since I wasn't presenting any other evidence of Crohn's other than perianal disease at the time.
 
I gather that you have not actually been diagnosed with Crohns?

Lab panels are helpful in ruling out things more than diagnosing them, at least as a general rule.

Labs that would typically be useful in screening for possible Crohn's disease are:

CBC w/differential: this includes white and red blood cell counts, hematocrit and hemoglobin, platelets and breakdowns of the absolute and % of the kind of WBC in the sample. There will also be a number of results that measure specific aspects of the cells for example their width, or that are ratios.

Here's a link to a very helpful article on the CBC lab test

http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/patient_education/pepubs/cbc97.pdf

Besides that, checking ESR and CrP are standard because they are general measures of inflammation. They are NOT specific to Crohn's.

They may also check your albumin level which would likely to be low if you had Crohn's.
 
I'm curious about the panel my doctor did called inflammatory bowel panel? Is anyone familiar with this. Some of the results on that rest were abnormal, my rbc's were low and I tested positive x 3 on the genetic tedt hla-b.27

I've had previous colonoscopy over the last 10 years, and endoscopes also sling with ERCP'S. CAT scans have been done also, so wouldn't they have seen signs from those, or do they specif. Have to be looking for crohns?

Thanks in advance

Cassy
 

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