TOPIC:

Si after fibroscan of 12 I had ultrasound and gastroscopy. Both were completely normal. I am if course happy but confused at the same time - how could it be that with so high fibrosis ultrasound has not picked up anything at all. Can anyone kindly shed any light on it please?

Hi countless,

U/S looks for abnormalities such as growths and changed blood flow and can also show granularity and other signs of extensive cirrhotic scarring but doesn't tend to pick up fibrosis or inflammation very well. Gastroscopy looks for evidence of portal hypertension. That no issues showed up on either of your examinations is good news.

Fibroscan measures the stiffness of the liver and as you were a F3 this would probably have been due to a combination of bridging fibrosis and inflammation. Inflammation tends to resolve with treatment and the evidence from studies seems to show that for many of us the fibrosis will also decrease over time after successful treatment. Perhaps you can get another fibroscan in say 6-12 months to check?

What Gaj said!

Except 12.5 kPa on fibroscan is the border between F3 and F4 so I'd call it F4 (very early).

The US is looking for cancer and is poor at picking up fibrosis and mild cirrhosis.

Your fibroscan will almost certainly fall to something like 7-9 after treatment because the inflammatory component will go away.

You are treating "just in the nick of time".