Algorithm for the diagnosis of chronic diarrhea. It is usually impractical to test and treat the many possible causes of chronic diarrhea. In most cases, it is more reasonable to categorize by type of diarrhea before testing and treating to narrow the list of diagnostic possibilities and reduce unnecessary testing. First, physicians should determine if the diarrhea can be categorized as watery, fatty, or inflammatory, and then pick specific tests to sort out the much smaller differential diagnosis within each category. #Diagnosis #PrimaryCare #Chronic #Diarrhea #Algorithm #Testing
