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Melena is a form of blood in stool which refers to the dark black, tarry feces that are commonly associated with upper gastrointestinal bleeding. [1] The black color and characteristic strong odor are caused by hemoglobin in the blood being altered by digestive enzymes and intestinal bacteria.
The stool guaiac test involves fasting from iron supplements, red meat (the blood it contains can turn the test positive), certain vegetables (which contain a chemical with peroxidase properties that can turn the test positive), and vitamin C and citrus fruits (which can turn the test falsely negative) for a period of time before the test.
Blood in stool looks different depending on how early it enters the digestive tract—and thus how much digestive action it has been exposed to—and how much there is. The term can refer either to melena, with a black appearance, typically originating from upper gastrointestinal bleeding; or to hematochezia, with a red color, typically originating from lower gastrointestinal bleeding. [6]
In fact, calcium-containing antacids are known to cause changes in stool color. So if you notice pale or clay-colored stool for the first time, ask yourself if you might have inadvertently taken a ...
When you eat food, it eventually turns that color by the time it exits the body in the form of stool, according to Baltimore colon and rectal surgeon Jeffery Nelson, MD, the surgical director at ...
Fecal occult blood testing (FOBT), as its name implies, aims to detect subtle blood loss in the gastrointestinal tract, anywhere from the mouth to the colon.Positive tests ("positive stool") may result from either upper gastrointestinal bleeding or lower gastrointestinal bleeding and warrant further investigation for peptic ulcers or a malignancy (such as colorectal cancer or gastric cancer).
Other stool tests involve the detection of antibiotic resistance as to guide appropriate therapy, e.g. Clarithromycin resistance of Helicobacter pylori represents a major challenge in eradication therapy but the responsible bacterial genomic markers can be detected in stool using PCR technology and thus can guide the prescription of the ...
Acholia or hypocholia [1] is pallor of the feces, which lack their normal brown colour, as a result of impaired bile secretion into the bowel. [2] Acholia is a sign pointing to reduced or lacking flow of conjugated bilirubin into the bowel, as a result of a problem in the liver itself or in the biliary tree.