While liver health is a vital part of overall wellness and catching liver conditions early can help in better outcomes with treatment. The liver shearwave elastography, known best as the Fibroscan is an ground breaking non-invasive technique to assess liver stiffness and detecting of fibrosis or cirrhosis. This post is a detailed guidance of Fibroscan what it does and why necessary for diagnosis type liver conditions.
What Is liver shearwave elastography?
liver shearwave elastography is a medical device for painless, non-invasive measurement of liver elasticity or the degree of fibrosis and cirrhosis in the organ This technology is called shearwave elastography, and it produces information about the stiffness (softness) of your liver tissue. In contrast to the traditional tissue-sampling liver biopsy, transitory elastography with Fibroscan is an easy and painless method for evaluation of hepatic parenchyma.
How Does Fibroscan Work?
liver shearwave elastography sends a small vibration (which is pea sized, just to feel it merge in the bigger whole) of painless wave into liver tissue through specialized probe. These vibrations induce shear waves, which propagate through the liver. This device tells the speed at which these waves travel through liver tissue, and that helps estimate how stiff or weirdly solid your liver is. The stiffer the liver, the more likely that fibrosis or cirrhosis exists.
The procedure typically involves the following steps:
- Position: Supine with right arm up above head
- Probe Placement: The TS is mounted on the skin with a water-based gel to allow conduction of energy and executed three times consecutively over an area approximately 100×120 mm in front.
- Parameters: The fissure waves are excited by the probe and then waved back to their original condition.
- Abstract: The device records liver stiffness measurements and gives immediate results.
WHY DO YOU NEED TO DO LIVER SHEARWAVE ELASTOGRAPHY?
Why liver shearwave elastography (Fibroscan) Can Benefit Your Liver Health?
- Fast and Painless: liver shearwave elastography(Fibroscan) is done non-invasively meaning there will be no tissue extraction as compared to a liver biopsy. It is non-invasive and pain-free, which provide more comfort to patients.
- Fast and Easy: The process itself takes only 10-15 minutes to conduct, with no waiting for several days or weeks before you receive the results. Because of this, it is a practical choice for patients as well as healthcare providers.
- Fibroscan Accurate and Reliable: It offers extremely precise measurement of liver stiffness, proven by multiple clinical validations as a solid surrogate for assessment advanced fibrosis (liver cirrhosis) It is a validated and commonly used assessment in clinical practice.
- Detection in early stages: Fibroscan measures liver stiffness and is good at detecting both the very first stage of liver fibrosis (F0) but also cirrhosis – this can happen 20 or more years before problems show up.
- Monitoring Chronic Liver Diseases: As for patients with chronic liver pathologies like hepatitis, fatty liver disease and cirrhosis, Fibroscan serves as a non-invasive solution to follow up on the progression of their disease burden over time,and might be able reveal whether or not ongoing therapeutic attempts are bearingfruits.
Symptoms of Liver Disease
Symptoms of liver disease may develop with different features according to the underlying cause. Common symptoms include:
- Fatigue — tiredness or weakness.
- Jaundice: Yellowing of your skin and eyes from high bilirubin levels.
- Abdominal Pain and Bloating: Upper right side abdominal discomfort or pain (most common symptom) with swelling.
- Nausea and Vomiting — The symptoms of FUO include having the sensation that you need to throw up, as well as actually hacking it out.
- Changes in urine appearance — including darker than usual urine
- Pale Stools: Lighter color of stool.
- Continuous skin itching
Legs and Ankles getting Swollen- Water retention.
Causes of Liver Disease
Causes of Liver Disorder
- Hepatitis B and C— these are also big players in liver fibrosis.
- Alcohol intoxication: Alcohol is a leading cause of alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis.
- Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) — A liver disease characterized by fat accumulation in the liver, commonly observed along with obesity and metabolic syndrome.
- Autoimmune Diseases: Some of the autoimmune diseases can lead to inflammation and damage in liver, including that of Autoimmune Hepatitis.
- Hemochromatosis & Wilson’s Disease: Both of these are genetic disorders that can lead to liver damage.
- Toxins and Drugs: Some toxins and drugs can cause injury to the liver leading to fibrosis.
What You Diagnose with Fibroscan?
Fibroscan is only one of many tests available to evaluate for liver conditions such as:
- Liver Fibrosis—Fibrosis occurs when the liver tissue is replaced with scar tissues due to long-term injury of the liver. He, however explained that checking for the extent of fibrosis and classifying it could only be done through a Fibroscan.
- Cirrhosis of the liver: The advanced stage of fibrosis in which damage to the liver is extensive and can no longer function as it should. Fibroscan can pick up signs of cirrhosis at a very early stage before any symptoms become apparent.
- Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Hepatic steatosis is characterized by an overabundance of fat stored within the liver. Fibroscan — a new tool for diagnosis and assessment of severity in NAFLD
- Hepatitis: Chronic infection with HBV, HCV induce liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. Fibroscan is used for liver monitoring in hepatitis.
- Users include liver cancer patients or those at risk for fatty liver (e.g., chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis) who might be checked more frequently if regular Fibroscan predictions of stiffness are repeated.
- Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): Fibroscancliver stiffness can be assessed in patients with NAFLP, which is a very common condition these days due to obese and metabolic syndrome.
Diagnosis of Liver Conditions
Diagnosis of liver diseases typically requires a thorough clinical evaluation, laboratory tests, imaging studies and occasionally invasive procedures. Some of the key diagnostic tools are as follows:
- Blood Tests: These can assess liver function and detect markers of liver damage, such as elevated liver enzymes (ALT, AST) and bilirubin levels.
- Liver Imaging Studies: Ultrasound, CT scans and MRI can be used to visualize the liver and identify areas of abnormality.
- Fibroscan: This test measures the stiffness of the liver, with increased readings suggesting fibrosis or cirrhosis.
- Liver biopsy: Takes a tiny sample from the liver for testing under a microscope. Although it is invasive, and so technically carries at least a small degree of risk, liver biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosing liver fibrosis.
Liver Disease Risk Factors
Several factors can increase the risk of developing liver disease, including:
- Chronic Viral Hepatitis: Infection with hepatitis B or C viruses.
- Excessive Alcohol Consumption: Long-term heavy drinking.
- Obesity: Associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
- Diabetes: Increases the risk of NAFLD and liver fibrosis.
- High Cholesterol: Can contribute to fatty liver disease.
- Family History: Genetic predisposition to liver diseases.
- Exposure to Toxins: Certain chemicals and medications.
Benefits of liver shearwave elastography(Fibroscan)
- Non-invasive — No needles or incisions, which is safe and patient friendly.
- The test is absolutely painless and can hence be done for all patients including the ones who might refuse invasive tests.
- Time efficient: The process is very fast, taking around 10 – 15 minutes and the results are readily available.
- Correct: Delivers accurate measurements of liver stiffness for the diagnosis and monitoring of Liver conditions
- Affordable: Fibroscan requires less cost compared to liver biopsy and it is a lower risk procedure with very few complications.
- Regular Monitoring: It is possible to conduct it regularly to monitor the progression of a disease and response to treatment, serving as an ongoing evaluation of liver health.
- Early detection: It helps in detecting liver fibrosis and cirrhosis at the early stage, thus aiding intervention and treatment.
- Comfort of patient: Since the test is non-invasive, it does not cause any discomfort to patients when compared to traditional liver biopsy.
Why Early Detection Matters
The effective management and treatment of liver fibrosis or cirrhosis demand early diagnosis. Up to 30 percent of patients don’t even know they’ve got liver disease, and Fibroscan can help the doctor catch it in its earliest stage. This early detection sets up the possibility for interventions like exercise, medication and vitamin supplements that can also in some cases help to reverse or delay liver disease.
Conclusion
liver shearwave elastography(Fibroscan) an accurate and convenient noninvasive method for assessing liver stiffness in detecting liver fibrosis severity as well as cirrhosis. Fibroscan serves as both a preventive and diagnostic tool for patients with liver disease, being useful in early detection of those at risk whilst also providing further information regarding severity.
To learn more or make an appointment for a liver shearwave