Symptoms of chronic diarrhea

The main symptom of diarrhea is frequent, loose, watery bowel movements, or stools. Other possible symptoms are:

Dehydration

When diarrhea continues without the replacement of the lost fluids, the patient is at high risk of becoming dehydrated, which can cause serious health problems, especially in children and the elderly. Symptoms of dehydration include dry mouth, dry eyes, infrequent urination, and urine with a dark color and strong odor and in more serious cases fever, nausea, vomiting, and stomach pain, malnutrition and weight loss.

Who is at risk for chronic diarrhea?

It is clear that people with severely weakened immune systems, such as those with AIDS, those who are taking certain types of chemotherapy or who have recently received an organ transplant, are at greater risk of developing problems with chronic diarrhea. 

Diagnosis of chronic diarrhea

The bad thing about diarrhea is that diagnosis may be difficult and requires a doctor to take detailed patient’s history and perform a physical exam. There are several test that can be done in order to confirm the diagnosis and the most common are:

• blood or stool tests (Complete blood count, thyroid function tests, Electrolytes, Calcium, Phosphorus, albumin, and liver function tests are commonly used. Beta-carotene and Prothrombin time may also be helpful)
• stool cultures may be used to test for bacteria
• special stains - they may be required to look for some parasites
• radiographs (x-rays)
• endoscopy - procedure in which a tube is inserted into the mouth or rectum so that the doctor can look directly at the intestine
• abdominal CT scans – they may show chronic pancreatitis, colon cancer, and signs of Crohn's Diseases (ileitis) or pancreatic endocrine tumors