What can a stool test reveal?

Normal bowel movements have a certain regularity. Basically, everyone has bowel movements once to twice a day, and the stool has a regular shape, and the color depends on the color of the food eaten. Stool is an important indicator of the body's health. Doctors can find out whether there are any disease problems in the body from the state of the stool. This is a stool test. Let's take a look at what a stool test can detect.

One of the routine clinical laboratory tests. This examination can provide a more intuitive understanding of some gastrointestinal pathological phenomena and indirectly determine the functional status of the digestive tract, pancreas, liver and gallbladder. It is divided into general observation of properties with the naked eye, microscopic examination and chemical examination.

Normal stool in routine clinical laboratory tests is brown-yellow formed soft stool, which may vary depending on the type and amount of food and the state of digestive function. Fresh blood in the stool can be seen in internal and external hemorrhoids, anal fissure bleeding, rectal cancer bleeding, etc.; tarry stools (black and shiny) are seen in upper gastrointestinal bleeding; pus and blood in the stool are seen in bacterial dysentery, ulcerative colitis, colorectal cancer, etc.; grayish white stools are seen in bile duct obstruction (clay-like stools) and after barium meal examination (barium excretion); stools with mucus are seen in inflammation of the small and large intestines. Loose stools can be seen in infectious or non-infectious diarrhea, such as acute gastroenteritis; rice-soup-like stools are seen in cholera and paracholera; if the amount is large, the frequency is frequent, the stool is yellow-green and contains membranous substances, intestinal flora imbalance and pseudomembranous enterocolitis should be considered. Sometimes undigested food, stones, and large pieces of parasites are found in the stool.

Microscopic examination includes:

①Cells. Normal feces occasionally contain white blood cells, but no red blood cells. In enteritis, the white blood cell count is less than 15 per high-power field of view; in acute bacillary dysentery, the white blood cell count is greater than 15 per high-power field of view, or even fills the entire field of view. Red blood cells can be seen in inflammation of the lower intestine (such as colitis, bacillary dysentery) and bleeding (polyps, tumors, hemorrhoids, etc.). Eosinophils, accompanied by Charcot-Leyden crystals, can be seen in allergic enteritis and intestinal parasitic infections; macrophages can be seen in bacillary dysentery and rectal inflammation; cancer cells can sometimes be found in the feces of patients with colorectal cancer.

②Food residues. Normally, a small amount of starch granules, muscle fibers and fat droplets can be seen. If they increase, it indicates malabsorption, which is more common in chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic insufficiency (such as pancreatic head cancer).

③Intestinal yeast. Human yeast and common yeast are normally seen, and Candida albicans can be seen when intestinal flora is imbalanced.

④Parasitics. When the human body is infected with different parasites, corresponding eggs may appear in the feces. Common ones include ascarid eggs, hookworm eggs, pinworm eggs, sinensis eggs, ginger fluke eggs and amoeba trophozoites.