Evaluation of a child >6 months old with chronic inflammatory diarrhea
Evaluation of a child >6 months old with chronic inflammatory diarrhea
Inflammatory diarrhea should be suspected in a child with chronic diarrhea if stools are bloody and/or fecal calprotectin or lactoferrin are elevated.
PE: physical examination; CBC: complete blood count; ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate; CRP: C-reactive protein; IBD: inflammatory bowel disease; MCV: mean corpuscular volume; G. lamblia: Giardialamblia. * IBD should be considered in any child with persistent bloody diarrhea, even if stool cultures are positive for an enteric pathogen. Infection with an enteric pathogen can mimic IBD. However, they can also trigger IBD, so the presence of an enteric pathogen does not exclude the possibility of IBD. ΒΆ Standard stool cultures include Salmonella, Shigella, and Campylobacter species.
