Ruling out Crohn's with a blood test?

My moms friends son has been experiencing quite a few crohns like symptons and they said their doctor took some blood work and said it wasn't crohns. That doesn't seem right to me because I would think if you could rule it out with blood work then you ought to be able to diagnose it with blood work...

Meant to ask my GI last week but forgot (I swear I need to write out lists before I go there)

A family physician or internist is simply not trained or equipped to make a definitive diagnosis of Crohns (or not). That's why they refer patients to a gastroenterologist. And no there is no conclusive blood test that can make the diagnosis either way by itself. I suspect the doctor did a sedimentation rate and foind it normal and concluded that, well, Crohns is an inflammatory bowel disease, no sed rate means no inflammation, hence no Crohns. Not true. See a GI specialist asap.

No, Crohn's can't JUST be diagnosed with a blood test. Everyone is diagnosed different and some people have so many different symptoms, it is often hard to diagnose between Crohn's, UC and other gastrointestinal problems.

After an Upper GI with Small Bowel Follow Through and an Abdominal & Pelvic CT scan showed inflamation in my small and large intestines, my GI scheduled me for an Upper Endoscopy, Colonoscopy and bloodwork for IBD that was sent to the Prometheus Labs.

Based on the inflammation shown in the first 2 tests; the many ulcers found in my large intestine during the Colonoscopy (Upper Endoscopy was clean); the 99% IBD markers from the blood test that are only seen in Crohn's patients and based on my "extra-intestinal" complications (mouth ulcers, leg lesions, swollen ankles, fatigue, etc.) the diagnosis was unquestionably Crohn's Disease for me.

This interests me, because my neice has very very severe crohns. When I got diagnosised (based on symptoms, the way the really bad onset happened, and a colonoscopy and endoscopy that revealed that my small bowel is bleeding) my sister insisted to my mother that I couldn't have it because it takes a "very expensive chromosonal test".

The comment about the INTERNIST reminds me...

I went to my GI in December, 2007 and complained of shortness of breath, fatigue and heart flutters.  He totally skimmed over that and didn't even comment on those things...just went on asking about intestinal stuff.  Ok.......

So in 2008, I went to see my general practitioner complaining of the same things.  He sent me to a CARDIOLOGIST.

So I go through an Echocardiogram, EKG, Stress Test and 2-day heart monitor.  But before I left the office on that final visit, the Cardiologist came in to talk to me about the results of the tests which were all good.  Turns out, he was an Internist and then decided to specialize in Cardiology.  Anyway, he looked at the symptoms I came in complaining about; called down the street to my GI's office and asked them to fax over my most recent bloodwork.  When the Cardiologist got the fax he said, "Did you know your Iron levels are low?  Low Iron can cause shortness of breath, tiredness and heart palpitations." 

SHUT UP!  Are you serious?!  You mean to tell me my GI & GP didn't pick up on this so it took me spending over $1,000 to go through all these heart tests to have a younger doctor/internist/cardiologist realize I simply needed some freakin' Iron supplements?! Good grief.  Hail to the Internist turned Cardiologist!

And then this year before my gall bladder surgery I was talking with my surgeon's NP.  She was JUST out of Nurse Practitioner school...maybe all of 25 years old, if that.  I'd told her I was having those symptoms and she quickly said, "Oh - is your Iron low?"  She knew immediately!  I'm starting to think some of the newbies docs might know a bit more than the oldies...on SOME things.

Ha, I don't want any of them doing any of those things...