Diagnostic tests are essential for identifying whether a patient has a particular disease or not. An effective diagnostic test should help to improve patient care and reduce healthcare expenditure due to the early detection of the disease and the start of treatment. Globally, healthcare expenditures are rising at a very high rate, and unnecessary diagnostic tests contribute to the increased cost of healthcare; thus, there’s a need for identifying an appropriate diagnostic test for various screening (Chaudhary & Nisar, 2017). In the screening of colorectal cancer, colonoscopy tests have been highly effective in detecting any abnormalities and cancerous tissues in the colon and rectum of adults.
Description of how Colonoscopy is used in Healthcare
Colonoscopy is a diagnostic test that checks the patients’ colon and rectum to help detect any causes of symptoms such as abdomen pain, bleeding in the anus or diarrhea. The test is widely recommended for adults as they are at increased risk of having colony problems. The test also helps check the causes of any changes in the body, including unexplained weight loss. Unexplained sudden weight in a patient might result from inflammatory bowel, which might hinder the body from digesting food normally, resulting in unexplained weight loss (Herndon et al., 2021). Irritable bowel Syndrome is a chronic condition that affects the gastrointestinal system’s normal functioning, leading to abdominal pain, constipation, and diarrhea. It is believed to affect around 10% of its population (Herndon et al., 2021). IBS negatively impacts patients’ quality due to the chronic nature of the disease. With a colonoscopy, the healthcare professional can detect any changes in the bowel and recommend the best treatment option for the patient.
Purpose of Colonoscopy Test
A colonoscopy helps detect colon cancer and reduce the mortality rates of patients with colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is a life-threatening disease and is considered the second leading cause of cancer deaths globally (Kastenberg et al., 2018). Early detection is one of the essential approaches in reducing the mortality rates of colorectal cancer, and colonoscopy is regarded as the most effective screen test that helps to reduce the mortality rates. A colonoscopy can help detect the polyps, and the medical professional can remove the polyps before they become cancerous, thus reducing the risk of cancer. A study conducted by Doubeni et al. (2018) showed that colonoscopy reduced the mortality rate in the right colon by 65% and 75% in the left colon. Detecting symptoms at the early stages of colon cancer might be difficult; thus, colonoscopy help to detect and prevent the growth of polyps which become cancerous if not detected and removed at the early stages. This helps reduce the mortality rate of patients with colon cancer and reduce the financial burden of treating colon cancer.
How Colonoscopy is conducted
During a colonoscopy, the healthcare professional uses a colonoscope, a long tube that has a camera attached to it to help detect any changes in the colon or rectum of the patient. The tip of the colonoscope is inserted into the anus and advanced into the colon with the help of the visuals from the camera (Kastenberg et al., 2018). The camera allows the healthcare professional to view the inside of the rectum or colon and detect any abnormal changes. The healthcare professional can also put air through the tube to help with a better view inside the colon. During the procedure, the healthcare professional can take out any abnormal growths on the rectum and collect tissue samples to test cancer in the colon. The doctor might insert other instruments to help extract sample tissues or polyps from the colon. After removal of the abnormal tissues, the healthcare professional conducts a biopsy to determine if the tissues are cancerous or not (Kastenberg et al., 2018). Before the procedure is done, the patient is advised on the foods to eat and which to avoid so that the procedure can be effective. This ensures adequate bowel preparation to ensure proper visualization of the colon and detection of any abnormal changes, and the presence of polyps in the colon (Kastenberg et al., 2018). Colonoscopy can lead to feelings of bloating and cramping. The patient is given medications and sedatives to help ease and control the pain. Depending on the magnitude of the damage in the colonoscopy, the test might take longer than 30 minutes. After the procedure and the successful removal of polyps from the colon, the patient is advised to eat a special diet to help with the recovery process.
The Information that Colonoscopy Test Gathers
A colonoscopy checks for polyps in the colon. At the early stages of colorectal cancer an individual might not show any cancer symptoms; thus, a colonoscopy helps detect any polyps and remove them, thus reducing the risk of an individual getting colorectal cancer (Doubeni et al., 2018). Polyps take several years before they become cancerous, and with colonoscopy, the healthcare professional can remove these polyps before they become cancerous. A colonoscopy helps to check any abnormalities in the colon. It helps to detect and understand the colon and rectum problems, thus ensuring that the patient undergoes the most appropriate form of treatment. An individual experiencing bowel movements, unexplainable weight loss, diarrhea, and bleeding might have problems with their colon. With a colonoscopy, the healthcare professional can check changes in the colon to determine the causes of these symptoms (Kastenberg et al., 2018). Additionally, a colonoscopy helps to detect serious diseases such as colorectal cancer. Colorectal cancer is one of the deadliest cancer in the world as it does not have symptoms thus can quickly progress to the last stage without detection. Colonoscopy is an effective method for screening cancer in the colon tissues, thus helping the individual start treatment options as early as possible when cancerous tissues are detected in the colon.
Colonoscopy Validity, Reliability, Sensitivity and Predictive Values
According to various research on colonoscopy, the test is highly effective in detecting any abnormalities in the colon and reducing the mortality rates of patients as a result of colorectal cancer. Based on the research conducted by Doubeni et al. (2018), colonoscopy leads to a substantial decrease in mortality risk of colorectal cancer in both the right and left colon of the patient. This proves the validity and reliability of the colonoscopy test in measuring what it purports to measure. The chance of early detection and prevention of colorectal cancer is associated with early colonoscopy tests.
Colonoscopy is regarded as the standard tool for screening colorectal cancer with high sensitivity and predictive values compared to other tools. The test is considered highly effective, safe, and available for most people who want to perform the test. A meta-analysis conducted to determine the sensitivity of the colonoscopy test showed a 94.7% sensitivity (Jahn et al., 2019). This supports the claim that colonoscopy tests are high sensitivity tests. A medical test should have a high sensitivity as this ensures that there are few cases of inaccurate results. A test that has a high sensitivity will help to ensure that no disease is missed, thus ensuring that the patient receives the most appropriate treatment (Ball et al., 2017). Tests with low sensitivity can lead to inaccurate results as diseases are missed. When diseases are not treated at the early stages, they can become fatal, thus increasing the mortality rate of patients.
Conclusively, colonoscopy is a highly effective tool for diagnosing colorectal cancer. Although colorectal cancer is one of the leading causes of death in cancer patients, the disease can be treated and managed with early detection and removal of polyps through a colonoscopy test. Considering the nature of colorectal cancer as having undetectable symptoms, tests conducted need to have high reliability and sensitivity to capture any abnormal tissues in the colon before they become cancerous. Thus the use of appropriate diagnostic tests such as colonoscopy is recommended to reduce the rate of mortality of patients.
References
Ball, J. W., Dains, J. E., Flynn, J. A., Solomon, B. S., & Stewart, R. W. (2017). Seidel’s Guide to Physical Examination-E-Book: An Interprofessional Approach.
Chaudhary, M. A. I., & Nisar, A. (2017). Escalating health care costs due to unnecessary diagnostic testing. Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering & Technology, 36(3), 569-578.
Doubeni, C. A., Corley, D. A., Quinn, V. P., Jensen, C. D., Zauber, A. G., Goodman, M., … & Fletcher, R. H. (2018). Effectiveness of screening colonoscopy in reducing the risk of death from the right and left colon cancer: a large community-based study. Gut, 67(2), 291-298.
Herndon, C. C., Wang, Y. P., & Lu, C. L. (2020). Targeting the gut microbiota for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. The Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences, 36(3), 160-170.
Jahn, B., Sroczynski, G., Bundo, M., Mühlberger, N., Puntscher, S., Todorovic, J., … & Siebert, U. (2019). Effectiveness, benefit harm, and cost-effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening in Austria. BMC gastroenterology, 19(1), 1-13.
Kastenberg, D., Bertiger, G., & Brogadir, S. (2018). Bowel preparation quality scales for colonoscopy. World journal of gastroenterology, 24(26), 2833.
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