First fibroscan good second way different?

[Amethyst91]

As I’ve posted I escalated my situation to a liver transplant hospital in Los Angeles called Cedar Siani. This is supposed to be one of the best hospitals in California and took care of a friend of mine who ended up with cirrhosis through genetics. At cedar Siani the Hepatologist PA did my fibroscan and they both read me the results which were pretty good but still not in the clear. My cap was 246 and my kpa was 3.8 and they both agreed that I’m still in a good spot for reversing the condition despite the pain and other symptoms I have. Today I had another scan, this one was scheduled along time ago by a dr I don’t see very often but I decided to keep it so I could compare and see if there was any improvement on the cap score even though I know they were close and probably didn’t have time for much change. This was at my gastroenterologists office and the technician did not seem nearly as confident as the Dr at cedar Siani. The cedar Siani PA did admit it was difficult for her due to my small size but didn’t seem to have too much trouble, today the poor girl struggled and even called in another girl to assist her. I have as looking at some of the scores they were getting and the results were dramatically different. The shots they were getting were showing my kpa in almost all of them to be much higher than 12, I saw 38, 18, 26, and all numbers really bad while my cap from what I saw was actually really good under 200. I’m obviously a little concerned about those scores due to all the pain I experience daily including the persistent neck pain that I read is a cirrhosis symptom. I’m also trying not to freak out as I’ve read that smaller ppl can get high scores due to the technicians accidentally hitting bones instead of the target. I’m also trying to lean on the side of the first one being done better as it was at a very reputable hospital and the girl never seemed too concerned about what she was doing compared to the two girls attempting to get it done today. Does anyone have experience with this kind of issue? Does it seem more likely that the technicians today were just not hitting the right spot or could my PA at the hospital possibility underestimated my condition and results?

I don’t get to see the gastro for today’s test until next month and I feel like it might even be ruled out as inconclusive or they will diagnose me with severe fibrosis from this read.

[nash2 Partner]

Hi Amethyst

I would probably believe the Cedar test. Someting to know about the test is that the score is an average of 10 consecutive readings. Unless the tech was able to get a series of reading which were similar the test would be thrown out as not usable. It requires some training to be able to do a reliable exam and it sounds like you had a couple of unskilled techs at the gastro doc. You should follow up the discussion with your hepatologist at Cedar but a score of 3.8 is low and doesn't indicate advanced NASH so something else may be causing you discomfort but you need a specialist to sort it out.

Wayne

[Amethyst91 in reply to nash2]

Thank you. I’m definitely trying to sort this out but if you’ve read any of my post you’ll know I’ve had to make to some noise and it’s been a difficult 7 month process. I do feel that I’m getting a bit better care now but it’s still hard to get them to believe my pain is my liver. There’s a chance it’s not but I just really feel like it is. I’m doing a lot better though in the ways of taking care of myself, I feel better there. I do worry that with my history I’m going to be one of those rare cases with significant damage that doesn’t show up in normal tests and only a biopsy. I don’t really want one nor do I think I’ll get one but I feel like that might be what answers my questions. They try to act like my liver enlargement isn’t a big deal but if feels so uncomfortable and my neck pain is so persistent that I feel like it’s a bigger deal. I will admit that regardless I’m still lucky that nothing else seems damaged by my history, so that’s a plus o hold on to.