What is the differential diagnosis for acute diarrhea?

October 17, 2020 1:05 am Published by

Diarrhea is the production of >200g of feces per day along with a change in stool consistency. Acute onset diarrhea is usually infectious and self-limiting. The causes of acute diarrhea can be inflammatory (which present with small volume, high frequency, often bloody diarrhea, with urgency, fecal WBC and RBC, and possible fever) or non-inflammatory (which present with high volume, watery diarrhea that is negative for fecal WBC). The most common cause of pediatric diarrhea is rotavirus infection.

Inflammatory causes:

  • Invasive bacteria (Salmonella, Campylobacter, C. difficile, E. coli, Shigella, Yersinia)
  • Protozoal (E. histolytica, amoebiasis)
  • Drugs (NSAIDs)
  • Inflammatory bowel disease

Non-inflammatory causes:

  • Non-invasive bacteria (S. aureus, B. cereus, C. perfringens, V. cholera)
  • Protozoal (Giardia)
  • Viral (Rotavirus, Norwalk virus, CMV)
  • Drugs (antacids, antibiotics, laxatives, Colchicine)
  • Sugars (lactose, sorbitol, mannitol)

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This post was written by Omar Rifai