Urgent, Non-Screening Fecal Occult Blood Testing for Patients with Suspected Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Review of Clinical Effectiveness and Guidelines [Internet].

Gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding can be a common cause of hospitalization, particularly in elderly patients. GI bleeding can be overt (where the patient and physician can detect the presence of blood without testing), occult (where there are symptoms of bleeding such as anemia, but that a test is needed to confirm bleeding), or obscure (where the bleeding or source of bleeding is not identified despite invasive testing). Occult bleeding is often caused by colorectal cancer (CRC) lesions whereas other bleeding could be caused by small bowel diseases or upper GI conditions.,

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