Questions? normal scans but liver problems..

[Ruggerhead]

I see a lot of people on here with the same thing, that they have bloods done, normal, have scans, ie ultrasound, CT, MRI all normal then they get a biopsy or F/scan and it shows liver issues, why cant they not see that on other scans? If your liver is fibrotic, or even fatty would it not always show on other scans too, How can we rely on each as being the real state of our liver health, what ones do we believe?

[Tia2021]

I did wonder this myself, hopefully someone will be along to enlighten us. x

[Herman7275]

Just like I believe an X-Ray doesn't show what an MRI shows??

[idyllic420]

I'm planning to get an MRE done. I'm going to ask my GI to give me a reference here in states!

[ThisIsUsRRR]

Great question. This is what I hope to find out from my partner’s hepatologist. He’s recently been diagnosed with advanced cirrhosis, why wasn’t anything other than a fatty liver picked up over the last 3 years of tests and hospital admissions? He may not have let it get to the stage it is now

[mcardle1 in reply to ThisIsUsRRR]

I’m the same situation all scans including Fibroscan showing mild fatty liver and no scarring. LFT bloods showing stage 3 fibrosis???I have heard that blood tests can show fibrosis for all other body organs and nit just liver ?

[mayk19 in reply to ThisIsUsRRR]

Gosh, sorry to read that. Where his bloods all fine during that 3 years also? I'm asking as I have pains in right quadrant, which i've been told is back pain. And had 3 years of scans MRI, Xray - endoscopy etc and found nothing. - all bloods normal etc.. so concerning to read your Partner had the same. What indicators did they have at all?

[Alibaba80]

Personally I rely on myself to know what is wrong and when something is not right. Usually the most conclusive test is a liver biopsy. This was the only test that diagnosed my liver disorder.

[Ruggerhead]

The problem with the liver needle biopsy is that they wont usually do that if your bloods and scans are ok, go figure?

[ThisIsUsRRR in reply to Ruggerhead]

Exactly. My partner was hospitalised twice and had to be detoxed but was told his liver was showing just fatty and it may be his gallbladder! Now we are at advanced scarring after a Fibroscan finally

[Ruggerhead in reply to ThisIsUsRRR]

How much scarring if you dont mind me asking BR, and what first took him to hospital

[ThisIsUsRRR in reply to Ruggerhead]

Hope you’re doing ok? So sorry for late reply. My partner now has advanced scarring from alcohol and he very first went to the hospital with constant sickness and gastro issues, he was told it was his gallbladder not alcohol but it now transpires he has severe ARLD which I could have told them!!

[MINTVCX]

The answer is simple. Every test is not 100% accurate. I think liver diagnosis is patricular difficulty (lack of symtopms or barely see). In fact "golden standard" is biopsy which of course is not perfect (sample error, human error, not represtive part of liver etc.). But if couple tests say cirrhosis (or advanced fibrosis) the probability to have it is sometime almost certain. No simple answers unfortunately. But we cannot suspect liver issue for every person with no symptoms, normal blood test and no risk factors (family disease history, fatty liver, drugs that can damage liver etc). If we tested them anyway, 99% would be healthy and false alerts would cause a lot of anxiety before confirmation tests. Or at least when someone would like to check liver in that case, then should know about very high possibility of false positive result even with most accurate tests (PPV).