Hello Everyone
I thought I'd share some information I have discovered with regards to positive faecal calprotectin levels.
Along with confirmed diagnosis of Fibromyalgia, CFS/ME and Anxiety, I've had digestive problems for sometime now, diagnosed as IBS. I've had endoscopies, sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopies with biopsies, ultrasounds, blood and urine tests done and nothing sinister has ever been discovered. However, I had two separate faecal calprotectin tests done which gave positive results. Immediately, the doctors have suggested I have a small bowel MRI to look for signs of Crohn's Disease. Thing is, when the doctor went through my symptoms he was surprised to find that I don't suffer from the common symptoms of Crohn's, considering one of my faecal calprotectin results was >1400. I don't feel overly tired, I don't get diarrhoea often, no weight loss, I do get blood and mucus when I have a bowel movement but this has been put down to confirmed internal hemorrhoids and IBS.
Anyway, going back through my treatment since becoming ill, I found a letter my doctor wrote out for me to issue to the relevant organisations to help with benefit claims. On the letter it lists all my confirmed diagnosis, and one of them happened to be Gastritis. Doctors cannot make stuff up so I'm presuming this diagnosis was confirmed from my endoscopy. I believe this diagnosis is correct as I do seem suffer more in my upper abdominal area, it can feel sore at times, I get hot, gassy feelings in my throat, indigestion type symptoms and causes lots of bloating and burping.
I've always been in some doubt about my diagnosis, and the fact my doctor suggested Crohn's disease, made me do a bit of research. I found a very interesting write up from the Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust concerning faecal calprotectin, of which the document was agreed on the 14th November 2017. It states that positive faecal calprotectin results are a sign of GI inflammation, of which the causes are as follows:
IBD (Crohn's and/or UC), Infection, Polyps, Gastritis, Gastric Ulcers, Esophagitis, Diverticulitis, Gastric and Colorectal Malignancy and use of NSAIDs.
I'm surprised my doctor, or even the hospital have not put two and two together and thought the likely cause of my positive faecal calprotectin levels are due to Gastritis. It makes me wonder how thorough they actually are when checking up on patients notes. As I said, my GP would not have put Gastritis on the letter he did for me if there wasn't actually any proof, or truth of it being there.
I'll obviously have the MRI just to be sure, but I'm almost 100% sure they will find anything untoward, as I said my problems seem to be more in my upper abdomen, not lower. This has made me think about the number of unnecessary procedures patients are put through, just by doctors and hospitals not being as thorough reading through patients records as they probably should. I know they are stretched, and under a lot of pressure, but maybe they would be if they were more thorough in the first place.
I just thought I'd share this information with you guys, if you have any thoughts, views and comments on this please add them, I'd be interested to hear what you all think.