Screenings and Diagnosis of Gastrointestinal Disorders

The first step in your care with us.

The expert providers at Henry Ford Health offer high-quality care for all types of gastrointestinal disorders. We use the latest technologies to provide a precise diagnosis of your condition. Having an accurate diagnosis is the first step in creating a personalized treatment plan for you.

Diagnostic methods and tests we offer for gastrointestinal disorders

We use the most advanced diagnostic methods to help us understand and effectively treat your condition. Your doctor may use the same procedure to both diagnose and treat your condition in some cases. Depending on your symptoms and medical history, we may recommend one or more of the following:

• Physical exam
• Laboratory tests: These tests, including blood, breath and stool tests, allow us to rule in or rule out various gastrointestinal conditions.
• Esophageal or anorectal manometry: This test uses a small, flexible tube called a catheter to measure the strength of your esophageal or rectal and anal muscles if you’re having trouble with normal bowel movements.
• Capsule endoscopy: You’ll swallow a tiny camera that’s about the size of a large pill, and the camera will take thousands of pictures of the inside of your digestive tract and small intestine for your doctor to review.
• Colonoscopy: This procedure uses a colonoscope (a thin, flexible tube with a camera at the end) to examine the large intestine and rectum.
• Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP): We use an endoscope (a thin flexible tube) and X-rays to diagnose conditions of the pancreas, pancreatic duct and bile duct, which carries bile (an important liquid the liver makes as part of the digestive process) from the liver to the gallbladder and small intestine.
• Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS): We use an endoscope with an ultrasound device to create detailed images of your digestive system and the surrounding organs.
• Sigmoidoscopy: This endoscopic procedure is similar to a colonoscopy but only examines the rectum and lower colon.
• Small bowel enteroscopy: This procedure lets your doctor examine the small intestine, as well as the stomach and esophagus, for bleeding, tumors and other conditions.
• Ultrasound: This imaging test uses sound waves to produce images of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract.
• Upper endoscopy: This procedure uses an endoscope with a camera and instruments to examine disorders of the digestive tract.
• X-rays: We use various types of X-ray exams, including a barium enema, in which we use barium, which shows up well on X-rays, to highlight certain areas of your large intestine on an X-ray image; and computed tomography (CT) scans, which use cross-section X-ray images to show us detailed images of the GI tract.'

Symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders

GI disorders can affect all areas of the digestive tract and can lead to many symptoms. If you have any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor about being screened for a GI disorder:

• Abdominal pain and/or bloating
• Blood in stools or black stools
• Constipation
• Diarrhea
• Excessive belching or gas
• Nausea and vomiting
• Unexplained weight loss
• Yellowing of eyes or skin