Do you know how healthy your liver is?
Hence a FibroScan - All you need to know.
Dr. Geeta Malkan-Billa – Director Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Liver Transplantation.
Why do we need to know about the health of your liver?
The Liver is the largest solid organ in your body, performing a myriad of functions and also the seat of your life. Today, liver disease is amongst the top 10 causes of death in India. Of all the causes of liver disease, Fatty liver is the most common.
A normal healthy liver has less than 5% fat in it. Fat deposition in the liver is a consequence of many reasons. If the liver fat is more than 5%, and is not treated, then this fat causes inflammation in the liver tissue, leading to scarring (fibrosis) and eventually to cirrhosis.
The risk factors for fatty liver include:
- Alcohol (30% of Indians consume alcohol)
- Obesity (25% of Indians are obese),
- Diabetes (affects 11% of the Indian population),
- Lipid disorders (affect 20% of our population)
- 38% of Indians suffer from non-alcoholic-fatty-liver disease
- More the number of risk factors (Alcohol, Obesity, Diabetes, Cholesterol), more the chances of fatty liver - liver fibrosis – cirrhosis
Apart from fat there are other causes of cirrhosis too such as Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, autoimmune hepatitis, congenital disease like Wilsons disease and Drug induced liver disease.
In all these conditions, early diagnosis is critical to initiate treatment before the disease becomes irreversible.
What is a FibroScan?
- It is a test to accurately measure the health status of your liver.
- It is a non-invasive test (no needles and no pricks).
- A probe is applied on the skin over your liver. The vibration from the device sends shear waves through the skin into the liver. Based upon the velocity and attenuation of the wave, the FibroScan machine calculates:
- How much fat does your liver have – The CAP Value
- How much scar tissue or fibrosis your liver has – The LSM value
How does a FibroScan help?
- The primary investigation for the liver in health check-ups is a blood liver profile, it is useful for screening purposes. However, it may be normal until the liver damage is advanced.
- A standard ultrasound machine has a finite ability to identify liver fat and fibrosis. It lacks the capacity to objectively quantify fat and fibrosis in the liver.
Who will benefit from a FibroScan
People with following conditions will benefit from the scan
- Those who are overweight or obese
- Having diabetes
- Having high cholesterol and triglycerides in blood tests
- Consuming alcohol regularly
- Having polycystic ovarian disease
- Have a family history of liver disease or liver cancer in view of a genetic risk
- Have Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C
- Have Autoimmune hepatitis
- Those who have been diagnosed with liver disease, to monitor its progression or regression.
- Patients on certain long-term medications (e.g. Tamoxifen, Methotrexate) which can be liver toxic in the long term.
How can you prepare yourself for the scan?
- You need to be fasting for 3 hours (black tea of coffee or water in those 3 hours permissible)
- Report 15 minutes prior to the test along with your past health records (blood test values are used to calculate risk scores)
- Your height, weight, abdominal girth will be measured. Your age, gender, health history, current medications and laboratory results will be recorded.
- Wear loose clothes since the abdomen needs be scanned during the test
- The test is painless and lasts for about 5 -10 minutes.
- Since the test is a scan, there are no post procedure side effects
- Based upon the FibroScan results and other parameters recorded, you will receive a report with an interpretation. You will need to meet your physician to discuss the results of this report.
