Fecal stool, like urine, is the end product of human life. They are formed in the large intestine as a result of various biochemical processes. They include water, undigested food particles, metabolic products, bacteria and more.
Do not underestimate the analysis of feces (otherwise - coprogram). Sometimes this study allows you to identify diseases of the stomach and intestines, liver pathology, pancreatitis in a person. But in most cases, it is carried out not only to diagnose diseases, but also to control treatment.
Let's look at this topic in more detail and define: stercobilin in feces is positive - what is it?
Basic concepts
Coprogram, or fecal analysis, is one of the most important ways to study the functions of the digestive system with a large set of indicators. It detects diseases of the stomach, liver, small and large intestines, gallbladder, pancreas, and also allows you to follow the development and progression of already obvious diseases.
As a result of the coprogram you can:
-To study the physical and chemical properties of feces. These are color, consistency, stercobilin in feces (you should not be afraid of a positive reaction, because it is normal), etc.
- Conduct microscopy of the material.
- Identify helminth eggs.
- Detect hidden fecal blood.
- Make a bacteriological study (detection of pathogenic microorganisms, analysis of feces for stercobilin and intestinal microflora).
Four steps of fecal analysis
Coprogram consists of several stages:
1. The study of the physical properties of feces. When it is carried out, the appearance of the stool is determined: color, shape, texture, smell, the presence of pathological microorganisms and impurities, the identification of undigested food particles, parasites.
2. Chemical examination includes the identification of several indicators (blood in the stool (which cannot be detected with the naked eye), bilirubin, stercobilin in the feces and other substances).
3. Microscopic examination is used to assess the degree of digestion of food, the presence of parasites and yeast.
4. Bacteriological analysis, as a rule, is carried out in order to detect dysbacteriosis, microflora disorders and pathogenic bacteria.
How to prepare for a stool test?
To get more accurate results 3 days before the examination, you must follow a few rules.
Firstly, it is strictly forbidden to do a cleansing enema. Also, do not take medications (laxatives orantidiarrheals) that affect the intestines.
Second, do not insert suppositories into the anus or other similar drugs.
Third, do not use drugs that change the color of feces.
And most importantly, doctors recommend that before doing a stool test (a reaction to stercobilin), adhere to a certain diet. Two types are suitable for this purpose:
- Pevzner's diet. Its main goal is to load the human body as much as possible. Within one day, you need to eat 400 g of white bread, 250 g of fried meat, 100 g of butter, 40 g of sugar, buckwheat or rice porridge, fried potatoes, lettuce, sauerkraut, compote and apples. The calorie content is quite high - 3250 kcal. If you choose this diet, then be sure to consider the state of your digestive system. It will detect even a small degree of indigestion;
- Schmidt's diet. This daily diet includes 1-1.5 liters of milk, 2-3 boiled eggs, white bread and butter, 125 grams of minced meat, 200 grams of mashed potatoes, 40 grams of boiled oatmeal. Daily calorie content - 2250 kcal. Food should be divided into 5 meals.
Preparing for occult blood stool testing
Before examining stool for occult blood, doctors strongly recommend that patients eat the following foods: green vegetables (cucumber, cabbage, zucchini, green pepper, broccoli and others), meat products, fish, eggs.
In addition, you need to refrain from taking drugs,which contain iron.
In the case when a person needs to urgently do a coprogram and find out what the reaction to stercobilin in the feces will be, or the patient cannot adhere to one of the above diets for he alth reasons, experts recommend not drinking alcohol and coffee the day before the study.
Main rules for assembling a chair
For research, you need to take only morning feces. After a bowel movement, the patient collects a small amount of feces with a wooden spoon or spatula and places it in a clean container, then closes it tightly. In order to detect stercobilin in feces, 10-15 g of stool is enough.
There are some guidelines for stool collection:
1. Wash the back of the body well before collecting faeces.
2. Women should not collect feces during their period because the stool should not contain menstrual blood.
3. It is not recommended to perform a stool collection after undergoing a barium x-ray of the esophagus.
4. Do not collect feces after the introduction of suppositories and other drugs that affect the color of feces.
5. It is not recommended to collect after an enema and the use of laxative tablets that affect the functioning of the digestive system.
After collecting feces, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and dry them with a clean towel!
Other important recommendations
To detect fecal helminth eggs, feces must be fresh and stored until delivery tohospital in a warm place.
For bacteriological examination of feces (especially for stercobilin in the feces of a child), the patient needs to receive a sterile cotton swab in the laboratory. Only a specialist will insert the tube into the anus.
To detect occult blood in the feces, meat and mushrooms, as well as medicines with iodine, bromine and iron, must be excluded from the diet for 3 days before analysis. On the fourth day, the patient collects the faeces and sends them to the laboratory.
In case of severe constipation, a special colon massage should be performed. If this does not lead to anything, doctors do an enema and take only hard stools for examination.
Normal analysis results. Stercobilin in feces is positive - what is it?
Dense fecal texture and cylindrical shape are considered normal. The color is brown, without caustic and harmful odors. Visual inspection should be free of food particles and harmful parasites.
By microscopic examination, feces should be free of blood cells, muscle fibers of connective tissue, fats, starch, eggs of harmful parasites, yeast and protozoa (amoebas, giardia).
Tests for occult blood, protein, bilirubin should usually be negative. If you have a normal stool test, the reaction to stercobilin is positive, since it is this pigment that gives the brown color to the feces.
Indicators in case of deviation from the norm
Main indicators that are not typical for a normal stool:
1. Shapeless Cal.
2. Too hardfaeces.
3. Pungent smell.
4. The presence of visible or hidden particles of blood.
5. Positive reaction for bilirubin.
6. The presence of muscle fibers.
7. Found fat in stool.
8. Change in color (black or white clay), indicating that stercobilin is absent in the stool.
9. Presence of food particles.
10. The presence of leukocytes (white blood cells).
11. Larvae and eggs of dangerous parasites.
12. Giardia and amoeba.
Analysis of the results of a coprogram in a child
Deciphering the analysis of the feces of children should be carried out by a pediatrician or pediatric gastroenterologist. In the study, it is important to take into account the age of the child and the nature of the food. Babies under one year of age who are not yet on solid foods may have a high concentration of undigested muscle fibers and fats in their feces.
If the baby is deficient in lactase (an enzyme that breaks down milk sugar - lactose), starch may be found in the feces.
In case of dysbacteriosis, stool analysis is an additional research method. Microbiological analysis is considered to be the main one. However, the coprogram shows the stercobilin in the feces is positive or negative in the child, whether the intestines are inflamed (mucus and fecal leukocytes are found in the feces), whether the process of digestion and absorption of carbohydrates, proteins and fats is disturbed (muscle fibers, fats, starch are found in the stool). After the analysis, the doctor can conclude that the child has developeddysbacteriosis.
If a baby has hepatitis, the feces become grayish white and look like clay. This suggests that there is no stercobilin in the feces of the baby (which stains normal stool brown) and bile stops flowing into the intestines.
If a child has chronic pancreatitis, the frequency of his bowel movements per day will be increased, the color of the stool will turn gray. The consistency of feces in pancreatitis is pasty, the smell is sour. Muscle fibers, fats, starch and a large number of leukocytes can also be detected - all these are signs of inflammation in the body and that there is no stercobilin in the stool.
Black stools in a child and the presence of occult blood in it - a consequence of the formation of ulcers in the stomach.
Diseases that provoke changes in the composition of feces in adults
With diseases of the digestive system, it is very important to monitor the increase in the amount of feces during the day. This usually occurs due to pathological processes leading to impaired digestion and absorption of food and water in the intestine. A decrease in the amount of stool per day is observed in diseases that are characterized by prolonged constipation, such as peptic ulcer. Let us consider in more detail the main changes in the composition of feces, which indicate the appearance of various diseases:
1. Discoloration of feces is observed, as a rule, with cholestasis. In this case, gallstones are formed, which disrupt the outflow of bile into the intestines. Jaundice develops, the stool loses color, acquiring a white tint. In the case (we are talking about a study when it is determinedstercobilin in feces) of a positive reaction, the color of the feces would be brown, and the state of the body would be normal. The appearance of discolored feces with obstructive jaundice is mainly combined with nausea, belching, fever. If the feces turn black, this means that the patient has a stomach ulcer. This is due to the rupture of the blood vessels at the bottom of the ulcer. Esophageal varices are common in people with cirrhosis.
2. The appearance of blood particles in the stool. If fresh blood was found during visual examinations, then this indicates the appearance of diseases such as ulcerative colitis, hemorrhoids, anal fissures, dysentery.
3. Change in stool odor. A sharp, sour, unpleasant odor of feces is the result of the appearance of inflammatory processes in the body, a sign of chronic pancreatitis and confirmation that stercobilin is absent in feces. This disease is characterized by insufficient production of pancreatic juice, which is involved in the process of digestion of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the body. A large amount of undigested food debris leads to an increase in putrefactive bacteria, which causes a strong odor of feces.
4. The presence of protein in the stool indicates the occurrence of chronic atrophic gastritis, in which gastric juice is not produced in the stomach. With its deficiency, the protein in the small intestine is not broken down, but leaves the body along with feces. Other symptoms of chronic atrophic gastritis are heaviness in the stomach after eating,belching with a putrid odor. Chronic pancreatitis also leads to the appearance of protein in the stool. Its symptoms are bloating, unpleasant pain in the epigastric region or around the navel, low body mass index.
5. Hidden blood in the stool. Blood cannot be seen with the naked eye. These microscopic particles can only be detected with a special occult blood test. Occurs with ulcers in the stomach and inflammation of the duodenum. Polyps of the stomach or intestines are a disease that is characterized by the growth of the mucous membrane, the formation of polyps that cover the walls of the intestines or stomach. Food passing through the digestive tract damages the polyps, which leads to the appearance of a small amount of blood that passes into the feces. Helminthiasis or the presence of worms in the intestines also cause the detection of occult blood in the feces, as harmful parasites damage the intestinal walls.
6. Positive reaction for bilirubin. Bilirubin is a bile pigment, which, under the influence of the microflora of the large intestine, is converted into stercobilin. Acute gastroenteritis and food poisoning lead to an increase in the rate at which food passes through the digestive tract. Bilirubin in bile simply does not have enough time to turn into stercobilin in the colon, and then it is simply excreted into the feces. And a positive reaction to stercobilin in the feces (a positive result is the norm) would mean that everything in the body is in order.
7. The presence of mucus in the stool. Mucus is a jelly-like substance that serves to better glide food. It is impossible to detect with the naked eye, because it is evenly mixed with feces. The appearance of mucus in the feces indicates inflammation of the colon, as well as the occurrence of infectious diseases: dysentery and salmonellosis.
8. The appearance of muscle fibers in the stool is a consequence of chronic atrophic gastritis and chronic pancreatitis.
9. The presence of fat in the stool is the result of a malfunction of the pancreas, which produces a special substance - lipase, which breaks down fat in the intestines.
10. The detection of fecal starch is characteristic of chronic pancreatitis.
11. The presence of leukocytes in the stool. Leukocytes, or white blood cells, are designed to fight infections in the body. If they appear in the feces, then this indicates the occurrence of inflammatory processes in the intestines.
12. Fecal parasites. As a general rule, no parasites should be found on stool examination. This suggests that eggs, harmful cysts, helminth larvae are absent. If the result is positive, then some type of helminth was found in the stool.
13. The appearance of Giardia in the feces. Giardia are parasites that live in the intestines. An accurate diagnosis of giardiasis is carried out additionally with the help of special blood tests. The appearance of Giardia in the body is accompanied by severe pain in the abdomen.
So, now we know that the work of the digestive system can be judged on the basis of an analysis called a coprogram. Doctors stronglyit is recommended to conduct it every 6 months to track the appearance of possible diseases in the body.
