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This article Fecal Occult Blood mention

You will need to test your feces from three separate bowel movements. These bowel movements should be three in a row, closely spaced in time to minimize the time you need to be on the special diet. This is necessary because if you have polyps, they may not bleed all the time. You improve your chances of catching any bleeding if you sample three different bowel movements.

Another article Colon polyp facts mention

Only a small proportion of polyps cause symptoms or signs. When they do, the symptoms and signs usually are the result of bleeding from the polyp.

Does it imply that having more stool test improve chances in catching bleeding?

user275517
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  • I'm not sure that your question is anything other than true; if we accept the premise that polyps do not bleed all the time, doing three tests would logically catch more cases than just one test. A question like "Do polyps only bleed intermittently?" might be more up this site's street. – Ken Y-N Oct 20 '14 at 08:08
  • The question could be whether it whether it is *worth* doing multiple fecal tests. What is the Number Needed to Treat (NNT) for the third test compared to the first? – Oddthinking Oct 20 '14 at 10:44

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