Diarrhoea

Question 1

What defines diarrhoea?

Answer 1

• 3 or more watery stools per day

Question 2

Whar defines an altered bowel habit?

Answer 2

-A change in bowel habit is any alteration in the patient’s regular bowel function

Question 3

Differential Diagnosis of changes in bowel habit:

Answer 3

• Infective gastroenteritis
• Coeliac disease
• Bowel cancer
• Ulcerative colitis
• Irritable bowel syndrome

Question 4

Define acute diarrhoea

Answer 4

• an abnormally frequent discharge of semisolid or fluid faecal matter from the bowel, lasting less than 14 days.

Question 5

Define constipation

Answer 5

infrequent bowel movements (typically three times or fewer per week) and difficulty during defecation

Question 6

Best investigation into diarrhoea

Answer 6

• Stool culture

- If foreign travel recently request parasite check

Question 7

Mechanisms of diarrhoea?

Answer 7

• Osmotic
• Altered motility
• Inflammatory
• Secretory

Question 8

Explain osmotic diarrhoea

Answer 8

• poor absorption of certain molecules
• leads to excessve amounts of solutes in lumen
• causes fluid retention

Question 9

Give an example of a disease that caueses osmotic diarrhoea?

Answer 9

• lactose intolerance

Question 10

Explain inflammatory diarrhoea

Answer 10

• immune mediated damage to epithelail lining

- impairs absoptive ability