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Normal screening test results in children with recurrent abdominal pain and loose stools might falsely reassure clinicians that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is not present. The Pediatric IBD Collaborative Research Group sought to determine how often four tests (hemoglobin level, platelet count, albumin level, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate) are normal in children with newly diagnosed IBD. The researchers obtained clinical, demographic, and laboratory data from a registry of 18 U.S. and Canadian pediatric gastroenterology centers for 526 patients with newly diagnosed IBD (392 with Crohn disease and 134 with ulcerative colitis).
Of the cases that were classified as being mild on presentation, 21% with Crohn disease and 54% with UC had …