spider veins on ribcage

[Magnetism86]

hello!

i’ve been having upper abdominal pain for 3 months, and started getting these spider veins in a line along my ribcage. Had an ultrasound and xray, they came back clean. Im still worried the veins mean something is wrong with my liver. Does it look concerning?

[AyrshireK]

It's actually against forum rules to post photos for comment, no one is qualified to comment plus photos never show up clearly on screen.

I would say though that there is a difference between spider vein/thread veins which are extremely common and generally NOT liver related and a thing called spider naevi which can be liver related.

Yours appear to be the former and along woth clear tests don't point to anything of major concern. I take it you've had liver bloods done too?

Katie

[Magnetism86 in reply to AyrshireK]

Sorry, i didnt know it wasnt allowed. But thank you very much for your reply! I had a large blood panel done and nothing out of the ordinary there either. Except for a bit higher lymphocyte count.

[JR83]

Hi Magnetism86,

I have noticed something similar on my body as well. In my case I was previously diagnosed with the NAFLD (non alcoholic fatty liver disease). My blood tests shows practically nothing to fear about but these veins are similar to yours. Did you have COVID-19 or have you been vaccinated for it? On Reddit there are the people who say that they have the enlarged veins after a couple of months after the COVID-19 infections. In my case I started to notice many of the enlarged veins in 4 months after the infection(I am not vaccinated because I had some side effects after the cold shot). Than as I reduced my body mass from 115 to 86 kg, I noticed even more spider tiny thread veins exactly on my ribcage and on my legs too. I observed some similar veins on my nose and upper lips but they are very thin and short and do not seem to shape spider with central red pulsating dots. I don't know but it can be something else or it can be the liver as well. As I obsessively searched for some info about such veins I landed on the US test and it's accuracy. I am not MD. I report only what I heard from a MD presentation about the US sensitivity in detection of the fatty liver or other liver imagining. The US sensitivity threshold is what I remember about 25%. This mean that it can be seen the change in the fatty deposition near or above this value what means that about 25% of the liver shows the fatty accumulation. I don't know if it is true but I found something similar.

I also had the US plus the Doppler to exclude the portal hypertension but I will know better 20.07.2023 as I have the MD visit.

I would like to know myself if I am in bad or in good conditions but the liver is so amazing that it has many different functions in the human body making this organ very difficult to diagnose indirectly. Sometimes even the biopsy does not reveal everything. I also wish that is only some aging or occasional liver bad mood.

Dou you drink alcohol, take some medicine or vitamin A or copper mangasium or other supplements, eat many sugar, fructose and white flour foods?

Sometimes these things matter especially after COVID-19.

[Magnetism86 in reply to JR83]

Thank you for your detailed reply.

I had heared about people developing them after covid-19 vaccinations. I only had 1 vaccine for covid, at the very start of the roll out. So thats some time ago.

I have never tested positive for covid, so as far as im aware of, i never had it. I do take magnesium though. Besides that no medicine besides birth control pill. And as far as alcohol goes, 3-4 glasses a month tops.

Hope you get good news, and if they happen to tell you something more about your veins, please let me know

[BritishLiverTrust3 Administrator British Liver Trust]

Dear Magnetism86,

We have edited your post to remove the photo you included, as it goes against our Community Guidelines.

Please read the pinned posts at the top right of the first page on the forum to see the rules and guidelines about making posts on this forum. This is about posting health information, more specifically:

“Please do not post photographs of test results or any part of your body and ask for medical assessment from the forum. It is very important that you discuss any concerns with your own doctors and medical teams for safe advice."

Best wishes

British Liver Trust

[kurtymac]

I've been in the same boat, worried, afraid. Every little thing that pops up means cirrhosis, I ended up being good. I'd say this, get blood tests, look at your AST, ALT, platelets, INR, Bun, ecy. Again, yes, they can be normal with cirrhosis, but usually something will pop up. Also, get a fibroscan, a fibroscan is what put me kind at ease. Make sure you get rid of any substances that may be harming your liver like alcohol.

[RedPoppy2]

Hi,

I have spider veins on my torso, along the bottom of my rib cage, and I was worried it was a sign of portal hypertension. I had a liver CT with contrast, which showed everything was fine regarding blood flow into and around the liver, so the spider veins are not a sign of anything serious in my case. Hope it will be the same for you!