What should be checked in a gastrointestinal physical examination

Material life is becoming more and more abundant, but many people have bad eating habits, which leads to various gastrointestinal diseases. Once gastrointestinal diseases occur, there will be symptoms such as abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or loss of appetite. If the disease is serious, you need to go to the hospital for examination. Some diseases require treatment. So, what should be checked during a gastrointestinal examination? Let’s take a look below.

1: Pepsinogen: synthesized by the chief cells of the acid-secreting glands, it is converted into pepsin by the action of hydrochloric acid or active pepsin in the gastric cavity, breaking down proteins into fat, peptone and a small amount of polypeptides. The optimum pH for the enzyme to function is 2. After entering the small intestine, the enzyme activity is lost.

2: Gastrin: stimulates the synthesis of DNA, RNA and protein in the gastric acid secreting gland mucosa and duodenal mucosa, thereby promoting their growth. Clinically, it can be observed that in patients who have undergone antral resection, serum gastrin levels decrease and gastric mucosal atrophy may occur; in patients with gastrinoma, serum gastrin levels are very high and are often accompanied by hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the gastric mucosa.

3: Amylase: An enzyme that generally acts on α-1,4-glucans such as soluble starch, amylose, and glycogen, and hydrolyzes α-1,4-glycosidic bonds. According to the different isomeric types of enzymatic hydrolysis products, it can be divided into α-amylase (EC3.2.1.1.) and β-amylase (EC3.2.1.2.).

4: Routine stool examination: Check whether the stool characteristics, color, etc. are normal, and whether there are abnormal bacteria, cells, etc.

5: Fecal occult blood: Check whether the stool contains blood cells, used for screening and auxiliary diagnosis of gastrointestinal bleeding, intestinal inflammation, hemorrhoids, etc.

6: Color Doppler ultrasound of the stomach: understand gastric motility and whether there are space-occupying lesions in the stomach.

7: Erythrocyte sedimentation rate test: used for differentiation of myocardial infarction and angina pectoris, gastric cancer and gastric ulcer, pelvic cancerous masses and ovarian cysts, and also used for observation of the changes in the condition and efficacy of tuberculosis and rheumatic fever.

8: Helicobacter pylori: Mainly used for early screening of gastritis, gastric ulcer and gastric cancer.

9: Cancer antigen (CA-125): Mainly used for early screening of ovarian, endometrial, colorectal, gastrointestinal and other tumors.

10: Carbohydrate antigen (CA-50): Mainly used for tumor screening of organs such as pancreas, stomach, and lungs.

11: Carbohydrate antigen (CA72-4): Mainly used for early screening of gastric cancer, rectal cancer, etc.

12: Painless gastroenteroscopy: The test is painless, less invasive, and more accurate. It can also perform a number of minimally invasive treatments for gastrointestinal bleeding, polyps, ulcer stenosis, especially some minor lesions and even lesions of the mucosal layer, which can all be clearly diagnosed. It also has a magnification function, which further increases the accuracy of diagnosis.