My understanding is that occult blood is commonly due to an upper GI bleed. Wouldn't the colon produce gross blood? I'm hopelessly lost in these matters.
krewfoo99Yeah I am lost in this one too. Maybe colonoscopy is the right answer to rule out other serious causes of GI Bleeding (Ex: Cancer). +2020-06-22T22:53:54Z
Key idea: Patients get their first screening colonoscopy at 50 years old, so in this patient with bowel changes (constipation) and anemia (which cannot be fully explained by hemorrhoids), the next best step would be a colonoscopy
submitted by carolebaskin(35), 2020-06-23T20:56:04Z
Tricky! Yes, fecal occult blood test would pick up hemorrhoid blood and this is a male <50yo, so case closed right?
Wrong! Hematocrit = 35% --> hgb = 35/3 = 11.7 < 13.5 (normal)
Why is he anemic? Do a colonoscopy.