The liver is known to be the mainthe laboratory of our organism and the duration and quality of our life depend on its condition. Alcoholic surrogates, drugs, fake medicines, low-quality food, fast food and other causes imperceptibly, gradually, greatly harm health, affecting this organ.
Inflammation of the liver is calledhepatitis. The main goal of treating hepatitis is to combat the progressive growth of scar tissue (fibrosis) of the liver. If such a lesion is not treated, irreversible changes occur in the liver - cirrhosis, which sometimes leads to death. Unfortunately, the formation of cirrhosis occurs unnoticed, so everyone, even healthy people, after 35 years of age is recommended to do an examination of their liver from time to time.
Until recently, the only wayassess the condition of the liver was a biopsy, which made it possible to determine the level of inflammation of the organ and the severity of fibrosis. The new technique, liver elastography, is a non-invasive and completely safe study of the organ with the help of the Fibroscan apparatus manufactured in France. Fibroscanning of the liver allows literally in 5-10 minutes to determine the degree of fibrosis lesion of the elasticity of its tissues. Measurements carried out simultaneously in dozens of points, make it possible to analyze the state of the structure of the liver, to evaluate its functional and morphological parameters in different pathologies.
Biopsy has some limitations onuse, such as psychological and physical discomfort of the patient, painful procedure and the possibility of examining a small portion of liver tissue, which does not always correspond to the real picture of the state of the organ as a whole. Elastometry makes it possible for the patient to quickly and comfortably determine the degree of fibrosis objectively and, accordingly, start antiviral therapy in time.
Liver fibroscanning by simplicitycan be compared with conventional ultrasound (US). Preparation for the procedure is not required, it does not cause discomfort. The study is carried out in the supine position with a bare stomach and chest in the lower part.
Liver scan is a safe,non-traumatic, used in pediatrics and does not require hospitalization of the patient. The procedure can be repeated several times, which is very important when monitoring the effectiveness of treatment during follow-up. The patient can receive the results of the examination immediately after the consultation.
Liver fibroscanning is recommended for the following categories of people:
patients suffering from chronic hepatitis - viral hepatitis B and hepatitis C;
patients with cirrhosis;
people who are planning antiviral therapy (to assess the degree of fibrosis before treatment, during the treatment process and after it);
patients who have reason to assume that they have chronic liver disease;
people with overweight, suffering from inflammatory liver diseases of non-chronic nature, as well as abusing alcohol.
It is important to note that standard examinations(ALT, AST) and ultrasound may not always really reflect the severity of fibrosis. Quite often, normal rates are observed with a high degree of incidence of fibrosis. Such cases can lead to the wrong decision, that is, refusal of treatment, which will eventually lead to the formation of cirrhosis.
The factor that liver fibroscanning is also important - the procedure is cheaper than a biopsy, very fast and without unpleasant sensations, and the results on informativeness are quite comparable with the biopsy data.
