Diagnosis of Crohn’s disease is crucial to management. It is important that you are given the appropriate advice on lifestyle and treatment so that you can start managing your condition and improving your quality of life. It is also important to seek medical advice early so that anything more serious or complicated can be ruled out.

Ulcerative colitis is treated in a different way to Crohn’s disease, so it is also important to determine if this is the cause of your illness.

Diagnosing Crohn’s disease may not necessarily be straightforward. Your symptoms may be quite variable. Often the symptoms may too general to allow a health professional to make a diagnosis immediately.
           
For example, you might present with loss of appetite and weight loss that is similar to someone who has a completely different condition.

Some of your symptoms may point to a problem that may seem like it has nothing to do with your digestive system, such as joint pain or in the case of children, failure to grow properly.

Your doctor will first take a medical history and examine you to see if you have tenderness in the abdomen and try to locate the source of your pain. Tests may be performed to see if you are anaemic or if you have an infection.

Once your doctor diagnoses that you have a digestive problem, you will likely be referred to a gastroenterologist for further investigation.

You may be given a barium meal or enema to find out where exactly in your gut the problem lies. To view the upper part of your digestive system the barium is given orally and to view the lower part it is given as an enema (inserted via the anus).  The barium meal is a chalky, metallic-tasting white liquid that you drink.

As it travels through your digestive system, it shows up clearly on x-rays and provides a picture of your gut that can be monitored as it passes through.

Barium may also be used to view the colon and check for damage. For this purpose, it is given as an enema rectally. Then you will be x-rayed and a picture of your gut may show blockages or narrowing and ulceration.

Colonoscopy uses a special camera attached to a long very thin piece of tube to view your colon or large intestine.

The tube is passed carefully up through your anus and it will provide an accurate picture of any damage to your intestinal wall.  A biopsy or small slice of your intestine can then be taken for laboratory testing to confirm this damage.

This is probably the most accurate way to make a definite diagnosis of Crohn’s disease. You will be sedated while a colonoscopy is performed so the procedure should be relatively painless.