Radiation proctitis differential diagnosis

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief:

Overview

[Disease name] must be differentiated from other diseases that cause [clinical feature 1], [clinical feature 2], and [clinical feature 3], such as [differential dx1], [differential dx2], and [differential dx3].

OR

[Disease name] must be differentiated from [[differential dx1], [differential dx2], and [differential dx3].

Differentiating [Disease name] from other Diseases

[Disease name] must be differentiated from other diseases that cause [clinical feature 1], [clinical feature 2], and [clinical feature 3], such as [differential dx1], [differential dx2], and [differential dx3].

The following conditions may present in a similar manner as radiation proctitis, and should be excluded:

• infectious colitis,
• inflammatory bowel disease,
• diversion colitis,
• ischemic colitis,
• chronic graft-versus-host disease,
• diverticular colitis, and
• medication-associated colitis

OR

[Disease name] must be differentiated from [differential dx1], [differential dx2], and [differential dx3].

OR

As [disease name] manifests in a variety of clinical forms, differentiation must be established in accordance with the particular subtype. [Subtype name 1] must be differentiated from other diseases that cause [clinical feature 1], such as [differential dx1] and [differential dx2]. In contrast, [subtype name 2] must be differentiated from other diseases that cause [clinical feature 2], such as [differential dx3] and [differential dx4].

• The table below lists the differential diagnosis of common causes of colitis:

Diseases	History and Symptoms					Physical Examination				Laboratory findings
	Diarrhea	Rectal bleeding	Abdominal pain	Atopy	History of radiation exposure	Dehydration	Fever	Hypotension	Malnutrition	Blood in stool (frank or occult)	Microorganism in stool	Pseudomembranes on endoscopy
Allergic Colitis	+	++	+	++						++
Chemical colitis	+	++	++			+	+			++		+
Infectious colitis	++	++	++			+++	+++	++	+	++	++	+
Radiation proctitis	+	++	+		++	+			+	++
Ischemic colitis	+	+	++			+	+	+	+	++
Drug-induced colitis	+	+	++				+			++		+