New to Live disease

[jossM]

Hey all

I had an ultra sound scan of my kidneys as I have stage 4 CKD. On that scan they picked up issues with my liver. Long story, short.

Had a CT scan. Followed up with an appointment with Gastroenterology Dr. As a result of that appointment I was booked in for blood work and a fibroscan. this was early December 2022.

I have on just got a very brief letter with basic fibroscan out come. "The scan carried out in December shows a liver stiffness of 35. This is in keeping with established cirrhosis"

What does this mean?

Regards Joss

[AyrshireK]

Hi Joss, sorry to hear you've had this diagnosis landed on you without any explanation from your medical team.

Hopefully you will have some follow up soon to explain your results and what further tests/treatment they plan to implement.

A fibroscan result of 35 kPa is certainly into the cirrhosis range, however, they also need to know what your blood results were doing at the time. If you had some liver blood tests done that showed high inflammation levels it is possible that your kPa figure is falsly elevated since fibroscan can't actually tell the difference between inflamed liver tissue and liver tissue which is fibrotic or scarred.

If the 35 kPa figure is accurate then you are looking at a diagnosis of very advanced liver disease (Cirrhosis is often referred to as end stage liver disease - this doesn't mean you are imminently at risk it just means it is the last stage of liver scarring). Once you have this diagnosis it is more about stopping the side effects of cirrhosis from causing you problems. The liver does 500 different jobs and once it becomes this severly damaged it starts to shut of some of it's functions so you start to see all sorts of random symptom which are all to do with the liver not working properly.

Normal monitoring protocol involves 6 monthly liver scans to check for lumps, bumps and other changes, 6 monthly blood tests to check all liver functions and often a regular endoscopy to check for changes in the gastric tract caused by a side effect of cirrhosis called Portal Hypertension.

The British Liver Trust has an excellent page about cirrhosis which I found a gold mine of information when my hubby was diagnosed with decompensated cirrhosis back in April 2012. britishlivertrust.org.uk/in...

Learning about the condition is useful as then you can ask pertinent questions of your medical team - hopefully you have now been referred to hepatology as well as renal department to look at both your liver and kidney issues. The two could very much be linked.

Best wishes, Katie

[jossM in reply to AyrshireK]

Many thanks for your reply AyrshireK. It has been helpful. I am currently awaiting a new appointment with the gastro team. This to discuss the Fibro scan results and arrange any further tests that need doing. I have a Nephrology appoint due in March so can discuss with them also.

I shall go and read the link you supplied.

Regards Joss