Diagnosis of Abdominal Pain
A set of tests and an open discussion about your symptoms with your doctor can help determine the source of your abdominal discomfort. Your doctor will do a physical examination before recommending tests. Checking for soreness and edema involves gently pushing on several parts of your abdomen.
Be ready to respond to the following inquiries:
- What part of your body is hurting specifically?
- Has the discomfort always been here, or has it changed places?
- How bad is the discomfort?
- Does the pain always linger or does it come in waves?
- Is the discomfort severe enough to interfere with your everyday activities?
- When the discomfort first started, what were you doing?
Your doctor will also be concerned about your sex history and menstruation if they are a woman of reproductive age and were given the gender “female” at birth.
This information will assist your doctor in deciding which tests to order while taking the intensity of the discomfort and its location within the abdomen into account.
The abdomen’s organs, tissues, and other structures can be seen in great detail with imaging tests including MRI scans, ultrasounds, and X-rays. Tumors, fractures, ruptures, and inflammation can all be diagnosed with the use of these tests.
Other examinations comprise:
- Colonoscopy (to examine the colon and intestines) [5]
- endoscopy (to look for inflammation and irregularities in the stomach and esophagus)
- upper GI
To check for evidence of viral, bacterial, and parasitic infections your blood, urine, and stool samples may be collected.