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What Does Positive OBT Indicate?

Posted on Thu, 10 Apr 2014

Question: My son is 35 days old.he takes only breast feeding. is doing stool 12 to 13 times per day with strain from last 7 days.we went to doctor.Doctor suggested medicine lactobacilpluse & walamycine and given stool test. Stool examination report are given below. Colour-green, consistency-soft,Mucus - present XXXXXXX blood-nil, pH-6.5,reaction-acidic,OBT-positive, Ove-not found,Parasit-not found,Cyst-not found,Vegetable cells-A few,Pus cell-3-4/h.p.f,Rrd blood cell-1-2/h.p.f,micro-organism(+), other- nil.Now walamycine 5 days course have completed & doctor told for test again and test result came as earlier.details reports are given below.Colour-greenish yellow, consistency-mucoid,Mucus - present(++)Frank blood-nil, pH-6.4,reaction-acidic,OBT-positive, Ove-not found,Parasit-not found,Cyst-not found,Vegetable cells-nil,Pus cell-6-8/h.p.f,Rrd blood cell-1-2/h.p.f,micro-organism(+), other- nil.For what reason obt is positive? Is it normal or area of concern?pls.suggest.what to do?

Answered by Dr. Divya Kuttikrishnan (1 hour later)

Brief Answer: ..... Detailed Answer: Hi there. Thanks for writing in.. OBT is fecal occult blood test and it indicates there is some small bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract. But there is no need to cause alarm or panic as OBT can also be positive if there is stomach infection, allergies and other conditions. Your child has already had a course of antibiotics and probiotics, walamycin and lactobacillus respectively. The current report has OBT Positive , pus cells 6-8 /hpf. I would advise you to visit the baby's paediatrician once again who might be in a better position to advise and clinically correlate as he/she has already examined the child. Hope this helps . Regards , Dr. Divya Kuttikrishnan .

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Divya Kuttikrishnan (19 hours later)

What can be reasoned for infection? What is pus cell ? What is its reference rang? I have taken advise from another dr.he told nothing to vary and there is no need of medicine. Forget the report.

Answered by Dr. Divya Kuttikrishnan (12 hours later)

Brief Answer: ...... Detailed Answer: Hi.... Sorry for the delay in replying.. As i said earlier, the commonest cause of positive fetal occult blood in babies is either allergies or gastrointestinal infections. Having said that, babies gastrointestinal system is immature and it develops as they get older.Even allergy can show up as a positive occult blood in stool. Occult blood if positive in an adult, is quite serious. However, in a baby, all the other factors, physical examination and investigations are taken into account. If your paediatrician has reassured you, thats good. As he would have examined the baby and correlated all the findings. He would be in a better position to answer your query. However, my opinion is to get a stool culture and sensitivity test done . If there is any organism grown, then we can see what needs to be done after that. Meanwhile, Continue to give lactobacillus...It is a probiotic and will help maintain normal gut flora. If your baby is active ...feeding well....passing urine well..dont worry... Hope this information was helpful to you.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar