Gastroenterology clinics of North America
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In evaluating the pregnant patient with abdominal pain, the physician is presented with a wide range of diagnostic possibilities, including disorders that can occur in nonpregnant individuals and disorders that are unique to pregnancy. The development of modern laboratory testing methods and diagnostic imaging techniques has led to a decline in the morbidity and mortality from many of these disorders. With an understanding of the physiologic changes occurring during pregnancy, a careful history and physical examination, and judicious use of laboratory tests and imaging studies, the physician should be able to determine the cause of the patient's pain in the great majority of cases and, in the words of Babler, avoid "the mortality of delay."
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Gastroenterol. Clin. North Am. · Mar 1998
ReviewColon cancer during pregnancy. The gastroenterologist's perspective.
Colon cancer during pregnancy is uncommon but not rare, with an estimated incidence of several hundred cases per year in the United States. This type of cancer tends to have a poor prognosis that is attributable to delays in diagnosis and advanced disease at diagnosis. ⋯ Pregnancy affects the diagnostic evaluation and therapy of colon cancer because of fetal risks of diagnostic tests and therapy. Appropriate medical evaluation of significant lower gastrointestinal complaints during pregnancy can lead to an earlier and improved diagnosis.