BOF: 55
A 30-year-old male presents with several weeks history of
blood and mucous diarrhoea. He has a frequency of bowel movement of 8 times
during the day and has to wake up 3 times at night to have a bowel movement.
Unprepared flexible sigmoidoscopy shows an inflamed colonic mucosa. A feature
that will show that this patient has disease affecting the right colon would
be:
a)
Serum albumin level of less than 30 g /l
b)
CRP of greater than 100
c)
Thumb printing on plain abdominal x-ray
d)
Distended loops of small bowel
e)
A tachycardia of greater than 100 per minute
Answer:
d)
The patient has ulcerative
colitis.
The presence of distended small
bowel loops would suggest incompetence of the ileo-caecal valve indicating
right colonic involvement.
Ulcerative Colitis
