Fecal Occult Blood Tests (cont.)
Dennis Lee, MD
Dennis Lee, MD
Dr. Lee was born in Shanghai, China, and received his college and medical training in the United States. He is fluent in English and three Chinese dialects. He graduated with chemistry departmental honors from Harvey Mudd College. He was appointed president of AOA society at UCLA School of Medicine. He underwent internal medicine residency and gastroenterology fellowship training at Cedars Sinai Medical Center.
In this Article
How is a fecal blood test performed?
For fecal occult blood testing, several (usually three) samples of stool are collected for testing. The reason for testing multiple samples is that bleeding from cancers and polyps often is intermittent and only one of the samples may show blood.
There are two types of fecal occult blood testing, 1) chemical and 2) immunologic.
How do the results of chemical fecal occult blood testing compare with immunologic fecal occult blood testing?
A chemical fecal occult blood test is inexpensive and easy, but it has several disadvantages.
The immunologic fecal occult blood test has additional advantages over the chemical fecal occult blood test. First, it is more sensitive for blood. This means that given the same amount of blood in the stool, the immunologic fecal occult blood test will more frequently be abnormal. In other words, it will more frequently detect cancers and precancerous polyps. Second, it is more specific for blood. That is, there will be fewer abnormal tests due to interfering substances in the diet, and as a result, an abnormal immunologic fecal occult blood test will more commonly be due to cancer or a precancerous polyp. As a result, less follow-up testing (for example, colonoscopy) will be necessary to pursue a falsely abnormal fecal occult blood test.
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 6/1/2015
Viewers share their comments
Fecal Occult Blood Test - Indications Question: Why did your doctor perform a fecal occult blood test? What condition did it diagnose?
- Allergic Skin Disorders
- Bacterial Skin Diseases
- Bites and Infestations
- Diseases of Pigment
- Fungal Skin Diseases
- Medical Anatomy and Illustrations
- Noncancerous, Precancerous & Cancerous Tumors
- Oral Health Conditions
- Papules, Scales, Plaques and Eruptions
- Scalp, Hair and Nails
- Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
- Vascular, Lymphatic and Systemic Conditions
- Viral Skin Diseases
- Additional Skin Conditions