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Possible colitis misdiagnosis

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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 8/11/2012 12:48 AM (GMT 0)
I was diagnosed with uc six years ago now and had a few flair ups during that time,but recently went to hospital in severe pain and they said it was likely my appendix so they sent me for surgery to have it removed,when I woke they informed me my appendix was fine but unfortunately they had remove a fair amount of my bowl which they were sending for a biopsy.when I got the biopsy results they said it was more inline with having chrones not colitis.i was just wandering if I had been misdiagnosed and wrongly treated for past six years?anyone know the answer to my question or been through something similar?
Posted 8/11/2012 1:42 AM (GMT 0)
Hello and Welcome to HW.

It's pretty common to have a misdiagnosis when it comes to UC vs. Crohn's. They both have very similar symptoms and the biopsies that would be necessary to diagnose Crohn's are usually higher in the GI tract. Typically for UC, we get colonoscopies but you would need an endoscopy to 100% rule out Crohn's. I could be wrong but that's what I've concluded from my research on the topic. My biopsies always come back as being UC but I still worry it Crohn's. I've never had an endoscopy and even if I did, if things were calm or inactive, it may be inconclusive.

I am sorry to hear you've been through so much. I hope you recover quickly and feel back to 100% soon.

UC and Crohn's treatments are very similar so you've probably been taking the correct medications. What were you taking? how were you diagnosed with UC? biopsies? Did you ever have stool tests?
Posted 8/11/2012 9:19 AM (GMT 0)
Hi thanks for the welcome


When I first went in hospital six years ago i was in a bad way and I needed six units of blood I also gave stool samples I had both colonoscopy and the endoscopy after which the doc said I had the worst case of uc he had encountered.during the endoscopy they took samples for biopsy after that they gave me tablets called asacol which they have now stopped
Posted 8/11/2012 3:47 PM (GMT 0)
GIs sometimes say that they can tell whether it is UC or Crohn's based on the way the inflamation looks but I wouldn't take that too seriously, it's an opinion afterall. With biopsies, it usually says "consistent with UC"... I don't think they ever say it's definiteily one way or the other. The fact that you had an endoscopy and stool samples is good. It sounds like it was just a tough to diagnose case which is not abnormal unfortunately. There is also such a thing as Crohn's Colitis - could you have been dealing with this? There is another board here for Crohn's disease that you may want to check out as well. Asacol is used for both Crohn's and UC. I took it for years for my UC.
Posted 8/11/2012 7:03 PM (GMT 0)
So sorry for your misDX :(

Besides location of disease, the pattern of inflammation differs between UC and CD...CD can affect the entire GI tract from mouth to anus, where UC is limited to the colon/rectum.

The pattern of inflammation for CD is patchy (it will have healthy tissue in between inflammed tissue) this is the best indicator to DX properly...some GI's may not have a keen enough eye (or knowledge) to tell the difference...UC causes the entire area to be inflammed with no healthy tissue in between the inflammed area.

Crohn's colitis is when CD is affecting the colon, but it can affect more than one part of the GI tract at the same time. There are 5 subtypes of Crohn's due to the fact that it can affect more than one part of the GI tract. Even though for most CDers, the inflammation generally starts in the small intestine, it's not always the case, it can start anywhere in the tract...it's just more common to start in the small is all.

Chances are, if your colon was in bad enough shape, then surgery was likely the best thing to do...even though it's considered a cure to have your colon removed if you have UC, it's not for CD as the CD is more than likely going to affect other parts of the GI tract at some point.
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