Occult blood fecal tests for self-control and point of care testing

Abstract

Fecal occult blood testing (FOBT) is a non-invasive and easy-to-carry, self-performed assay. It is often conducted in the diagnosis of various gastrointestinal diseases, especially as a screening test for colorectal cancer. This test is aimed at detecting blood which is not visible macroscopically in a stool sample. The purpose of this paper is to discuss various types of FOB tests: chemical, immunochroma- tographic and DNA tests. Despite the similarity in their performance, these tests use different methods and thus differ in their ability to detect blood from different parts of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, the interfering factors in the various assays and the proper preparation of the patient before the test are discussed in detail. The knowledge of the differences between these tests will allow to correct performance and interpretation of the results obtained with each tests.