Exams and Tests
The tests needed to diagnose
may depend on your symptoms and
on a medical history and physical exam.
If you are a younger adult
who is having ulcer symptoms for the first time, your doctor may begin
treatment with medicines based only on your symptoms and the results of your
medical history and physical exam. But it is becoming more common to test your
blood, breath, or stool immediately for
(H. pylori) infection whenever someone has common ulcer
symptoms.
If you are older than 55, you may require more testing
because you may be at increased risk for stomach cancer. Although the risk of
stomach cancer is small, it is important to
distinguish between a gastric and duodenal ulcer. If
you have a stomach ulcer, it will be tested for cancer. In rare cases, stomach
ulcers contain cancer cells. Further testing is needed, especially for those
people older than 55 who have:
- Ulcer symptoms for the first
time.
- Ulcer symptoms that return before or after treatment is
completed.
- A family history of stomach
cancer.
- Additional symptoms may point to a more serious
problem, such as stomach cancer. These include:
- Blood in the stool.
- Weight loss
of more than 10% of body weight.
- .
- Difficulty swallowing
(dysphagia).
- .
- Abdominal mass.
Tests to diagnose peptic ulcer disease
When a
person has symptoms of a peptic ulcer, the following tests may be used to look
for the ulcer:
- Endoscopy.Endoscopy
allows the doctor to look at the inside of the stomach and upper small
intestine to see whether ulcers are present. It also allows the doctor to
collect a tissue sample (biopsy) that can be tested for the presence of
H. pylori bacteria or other problems (such as cancer) in
the stomach.
- Upper gastrointestinal (UGI) series. An X-ray
exam of the esophagus and stomach (upper GI series) may be used to diagnose peptic ulcer disease, although this test
is being used less frequently.
A
fecal occult blood test (FOBT) may be done to detect
blood in the stool, which may be caused by a peptic ulcer or another serious
problem, such as colon cancer. By itself, an FOBT cannot diagnose peptic ulcer
disease, but it may show if an ulcer is bleeding.
A
complete blood count (CBC) also may be done to look
for anemia, which may be caused by a bleeding ulcer.