Fibroscan overestimation

[youngandworried]

Hi there,

Has anyone on here had any experience with having a fibroscan which told bad news, followed by a biopsy which told better news?

My fibroscan result from a few weeks ago was 12kpa (Not quite cirrhotic but F3). The consultant, who is very experienced & I was very impressed by him, said that fibroscan results, particularly in young people (I'm 24) and in people with high ALT (mine's always 300-400), can be significant overestimation.

I had a biopsy last week and am waiting on the results. I'm really hoping that the biopsy proves the fibroscan at least somewhat wrong, but has this happened to anybody else?

thanks.

[bintcliffe]

Hi There, I had a fibroscan a few years ago with a score of 19 my consultant was shocked I was told to repeat in 6 months and when I asked for a repeat scan he just dismissed it as if he didn't really think they were accurate and I've never had one since, regards Hayley

[youngandworried in reply to bintcliffe]

Thanks, what is your diagnosis?

[bintcliffe in reply to youngandworried]

F4 cirrhosis however apart from some weight gain I'm doing ok, I wish you the same Hayley X

[velvetunderground]

As I understand it, Fibroscans can sometimes overestimate stiffness, but rarely underestimate it. Temporary liver inflammation for example could overestimate the fibrosis score. I've had several fibroscans, and there was one in particular that was an anomaly in the trend, showing a much higher result than the one before or the one after.

Biopsies are often considered the 'gold standard' for diagnosis, but keep in mind that they will only sample a tiny area of the liver so if your liver condition is heterogeneous it is possible that the biopsy might report better or worse than reality.

All this means that sadly it is very hard to accurately diagnose a liver condition, all the results and symptoms need to be looked at together to draw a conclusion - this is one of the key reasons to stay aware from Dr. Google as much as you can!

Good luck with your journey - whatever the outcome, you have age very much on your side and that is a great advantage.

Paul.

[JimmyJackson]

I had a very worrying result from consecutive fibroscans my consultants answer was to stop doing them.

This was several years ago & my problem doesn’t appear to have got worse, now have sonar scans + scans

[Highliverenzymes]

Yes my fibroscan showed stage 3 fibrosis and biopsy came back with no signs of fibrosis. Although the biopsy only tests a very small portion of the liver. So even with no fibrosis present in the sample you could still have some fibrosis but unlikely to be stage 3 if zero found in sample. My Liver doctor told me that fibroscans are wildly inaccurate most of the time. Its a good tool to use in combination with other tools but not a good tool to diagnose or form a treatment plan from.

[JimmyJackson in reply to Highliverenzymes]

That more or less confirms what my consultant who is very experienced said but good to get second opinion as at the time it scared me