please help

[Guest guest]

Hi, all, sorry I haven't been very vocal lately - we had a new baby

at the beginning of December and I haven't slept very much since

then. We've recently had some disturbing developments in my

husband's health, though, and I was hoping I could get some input

from others who might have an idea of what is going on.

My husband had his third yearly MRCP earlier this week, and

the " history " provided to the interpreting radiologist was

incorrect - it said history of active Hepatitis B and cirrhosis,

neither of which he has been diagnosed with. The findings of the

radiologist, however, were hypertrophy of the left lobe, consistent

with cirrhosis. The biliary tree was visualized as completely

normal and no " nodules " or other indications of cirrhosis were

found. I was not concerned and assumed this was a case of tell

someone what they're looking for and they'll necessarily find it,

except that we spoke with a friend who's a radiologist and he said

that hypertrophy of the left lobe and the " mild prominence " of the

left lobe mentioned in last year's MRCP are BOTH signs of cirrhosis -

that the left lobe usually goes first in cirrhosis and one of the

signs is this appearance in relation to the right lobe.

At his liver biopsy two years ago my husband was found to have Stage

II/III fibrosis, but no cirrhosis. Since then, we have brought his

lab tests into normal ranges with high-dose Urso and a host of other

supplements, and he has been entirely asymptomatic. My question for

everyone is - is this possible??? Can he have progressed to

cirrhosis without worsening lab values and with no symptoms and no

evidence on the MRCP of biliary tree abnormality?? Is it possible

that he does not have PSC, that it is something else, and if so,

does anyone have any ideas what it could be? Autoimmune hepatitis,

Hepatitis A-Z and 's were all ruled out during his initial

diagnosis, and we have been going on the assumption that, since he

is AMA-negative and ANCA-positive and his untreated lab values had a

cholestatic profile, this was early stage PSC, although I guess it

never really made sense why his fibrosis would be so advanced with

early stage PSC. Does anyone have any ideas??? We are of course

shocked and slightly panicked that a liver transplant may be around

the corner when we're still getting no sleep with a newborn - we

thought things were going so well...

Thanks,

Nina in Philly