Good Morning Everyone!
I wanted to know what everyones experience is with Fibroscans . What were your numbers and how reliable is this test?
I got a Fibroscan yesterday and I believe my number was 8.
Thank You for your time!
Have a blessed day!
I had my appointment today . I had ultrasound results read to me and my elastography placed my fibrosis at a F2-F3 . At the office my Hepatology doc did a Fibroscan and said I would be more like a F1-F2 . He said the trapped bile false reads some scans and makes them read higher , he lead me to believe his Fibroscan was more accurate as it was similar to the results of my biopsy fibrosis placement which is “Gold standard “
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Thats Great!! Its always good to be doing better than what we originally think.
Fibroscan was entirely incorrect in my case. My surgical wedge liver biopsy showed stage 3. Fibroscan showed a normal liver.
So a liver biopsy is a better way to determine what stage I’m in?
There is controversy about this topic. In my case the fibroscan was completely incorrect.
I’ve had a couple of fibroscans, and a couple of biopsies, and they’ve given different readings. In a conversation with my Dr, he said that the issue with biopsies is that they target a single spot in the liver. Although in general the damage to the liver is mostly uniform, there are variations. He said that the problem with fibroscans is that they’re comparing the overall elasticity of your liver to some standard, and if your liver doesn’t match that standard from the start, without scarring, then the read will be off. His approach was essentially to average the numbers we got from the one and from the other. And his attitude was to rely more on other measures of the progression of the disease, like frequency and severity of colangitis attacks, amount of stricturing, etc.
This is a good description and explanation. Thanks much.
It’s also good to consider that although liver biopsy and fibro scans have their place as a diagnostic tool, it does not change the progression of PSC. And the liver biopsy can be painful afterwards as I experienced. It gave a marker and showed I was stage 4, but didn’t really benefit me other than knowing I was going to die sooner than later without a transplant. For me I think MELD was the key indicator to watch closely. I was amazed that my MELD score went from a 12 in January '15 to a 36 in July that same year. Well at 36 it put me at the top of the list at Duke, and I was transplanted 2 days later. Hang in there, get your regular labs and when your time comes I pray there will be a perfect match.
Mark
Our son had a fibroscan 3 months ago and it showed a level 0. We were told there was absolutely no damage. After transferring care to a major transplant facility due to sustained ALP’s over 400, he just had a liver biopsy that put him at a level 2. I think the key is to pay attention to ALL your tests and not just rely on one.
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