New Symptom Index Can Assess Severity of Microscopic Colitis
Microscopic colitis -- one of three types of colitis -- is often confused with other bowel conditions, and although it is not as severe as other forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), it usually takes a colonoscopy to diagnose it.
So it comes as good news that the Mayo Clinic has devised a tool that can help doctors assess your condition and find out if it’s really microscopic colitis, a common reason for chronic diarrhea.
Called the Microscopic Colitis Disease Activity Index, the tool was revealed by the Mayo Clinic at the American College of Gastroenterology Annual Scientific Meeting in October 2011.
“Until now, physicians have not had a way to objectively and consistently score the severity of a patient’s disease beyond simply counting the number of bowel movements per day,” said Dr. Darrell Pardi, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist who authored the study. Along with incidences of diarrhea, the new assessment tool looks at abdominal pain, urgency and incontinence.
The Disease Activity Index will be useful in future studies of microscopic colitis, as researchers compare treatments, said the Mayo Clinic in its Oct. 31, 2011, press release.
As the Mayo Clinic explained, microscopic colitis is a chronic, inflammatory condition of the large intestine, or colon, that causes watery diarrhea and occasional abdominal pain. The disorder gets its name from the way it’s identified -- microscopic examination of tissue obtained through a colonoscopy.
Among older patients with chronic diarrhea, microscopic colitis is said to be the cause of perhaps 30 percent of cases.
But the disorder is not to be confused with ulcerative colitis, which produces ulcers in the lining of the colon and rectum, or with indeterminate colitis, the name doctors use when it’s hard to distinguish whether the patient’s intestinal inflammation is ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
Unlike other forms of inflammatory bowel disease, microscopic colitis does not lead to colon cancer and rarely requires any surgery, said the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse. Still, it can bring about pain and discomfort.
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