Acute diarrhea classification
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Sudarshana Datta, MD [2]
Overview
Overview
Diarrhea is defined as the passage of unformed or abnormally fluid stools at an increased frequency. Acute diarrhea has a duration of < 4 weeks and may be classified on the basis of etiology and presentation. On the basis of etiology, acute diarrhea may be classified into infectious and non-infectious sub-types. Based on the type of presentation, acute diarrhea may be classified into watery and inflammatory types. Watery diarrhea may be further classified into secretory and osmotic types of diarrhea.
Classification
Classification
Classification based on etiology
- Acute diarrhea may be classified according to etiology into infectious and non-infectious subtypes/groups. The infectious group may further be classified into bacterial, viral, fungal and protozoal subgroups. The non-infectious group is further classified into diarrhea due to medications, poisoning and systemic illnesses.
Classification based on presentation
- Based on the type of presentation, acute diarrhea may be classified into watery and inflammatory types. Watery diarrhea may further be classified into secretory and osmotic types of diarrhea.
| Acute diarrhea | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Watery | Inflammatory | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| •Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis •Cytomegalovirus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Secretory | Osmotic | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| •Cholera •Enterotoxigenic strains of E. coli | •Lactase deficiency •Whipple’s disease | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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