Esophageal varices

[ToughToes]

Hi Folks,

As person who responded to an earlier post if mine, who seemed very knowledgeable, said that it was somewhat unusual to have portal gastropathy without esophageal varices. He also said that esophageal varices usually appear before portal gasttopathy does.l, and are more common among people with cirrhosis.

Has anybody else heard similar information, or k ow from personal experience, that the information inn5he receding paragraph sounds accurate, ir generally true? I realize that everybody's situation is individual and unique, but is it usually the case that esophageal varices are more common with cirrhosis and that they usually appear before portal gastropathy?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much,

Terry

[ToughToes]

Again, nobody has any thoughts?

[Jaxxy8]

I don’t have Esophageal varices but I have gastropathy. It’s only in my stomach.

My consultant didn’t mention that this was odd and on my journey, I haven’t seen anything to suggest that’s it’s unusual.

[ToughToes in reply to Jaxxy8]

I've read that PHG can cause coughing up blood. Has that ever happened to you? And, if so, mind if I ask what colour the blood was? As in bright red? Or blackish?

[DataLiver]

It appears to me based on the responses and my dive into research studies that it is possible to have portal gastropathy before you see any varices of the esophagus. If there is a patient portal for your liver specialist I would be reaching out through them to ask them about it as well.

[Rcjb]

as for myself, I’ve been diagnosed with varices, not gastropathy. I frequently suffer gastritis.

[ToughToes in reply to Rcjb]

Besides gastritis, do you have any liver-related conditions?

[Rcjb in reply to ToughToes]

Suffer from compensated cirrhosis. Diagnosed several years ago, more than 20 years after fatty liver diagnosis.

[ToughToes in reply to Rcjb]

See, that's the weirdest part of it all. I had an abdominal ultrasound just last December, which said my liver looked normal, except for mild fatty infiltration. Doesn't it seem ridiculous fast for my liver to go from that to cirrhosis in just 6-7 months? Also, do you know whether a biopsy of stomach tissue can detect cirrhosis? Apparently, during the gastrosopy, the doctor performed a biopsy of the area of concern in my stomach to be sent to the pathologist for analysis. I was always under the impression that biopsies were used to detect cancer.

Thanks again,

Terry

[Rcjb in reply to ToughToes]

A cat scan and ultrasound didn’t catch the cirrhosis. Had both same day I ended up at ER in pain. Only cat scan with dye caught portal hypertension and cirrhosis. Numerous prior scans, ultrasounds failed to see.

[ToughToes in reply to Rcjb]

Geez, that's comforting. What good are they then?

[ToughToes in reply to Rcjb]

But, nonetheless, doesn't it seem impossible to go from mildly fatty liver to cirrhosis in just 6-7 months? Also, my last ultrasound noted that my liver was "normal in size and homogeneous", and a "mild increase in echogenicity". I'm no expert, but that sure as hell doesn't sound like anything even remotely close to what would be seen with cirrhosis. Seriously.

[Hidden in reply to ToughToes]

My daughter was diagnosed in March with cirrhosis after last year being told that it was fatty liver. The only symptoms she had was pain from the middle of the back around to the front where the liver is and itchy rashes. She had those symptoms for several years after going to the Dr several times and getting mis diagnosed. Told her to lose weight and go to the chiropractor and her alt numbers were fine up until her last physical late last year. It changed that fast and we were shocked. We are having a hard time accepting this but biopsies don't lie. She's 33 and getting married on the 31st and wants children so her dr is doing an esophagal endoscopy this afternoon to see if there's any varicose veins and safe enough to get pregnant. I'm scared for her health to get pregnant. Has any other females on here gone through this situation?

[ToughToes in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, but your daughter's situation sounds nothing like mine. Good luck to hee, though!

[lusitania84 in reply to Rcjb]

Interesting... your cirrhosis was caught on a contrast CT. I wonder if an mri with contrast would also pick it up?

[Sunedae in reply to ToughToes]

...they should have done biopsy of liver and not wasted your time

[Sunedae]

I'm not sure about that ...I do know my mother's doc said that if you have esophageal varices its likely your abdominal cavity is full of them ...she had them with primary biliary cirrhosis ...inherited on her mother's side she was fortunate to not have a bleeding episode but did do paracentesis about every 8 to 10 days for 3 years removing 8 to 15 liters of fluid .My brother has had a bleeding episode and lots of banding of varices ...he also had the TIPS procedure done . I have small varices in abd. but have not had an endoscopy and dont see a liver specialist