Guest guest Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Sorry to hear your son developed pancreatitis after having an ERCP and stent placement. I hope the removal goes a bit better. Cirrhosis is a diagnosis that can only be made via biopsy as it's a pathological diagnosis based, by definition, on bridging necrosis that is seen on looking at the biopsy tissue under a microscope. As mentioned, you can see it in some tissue samples and not in others. So it depends on how good the biopsy is and where they take it from in the liver. Since the liver regenerates the biopsy can miss areas of damage that would lead to a diagnosis of cirrhosis. I've had 8 liver biopsies. Or nine. Can't remember exactly. The first one I had showed cirrhosis about a year into my disease symptoms. And yet it took 18 years before my liver packed it in and I required a tx. So you never know the exact significance of saying there is cirrhosis. More important is how the liver is functioning. And the tests for that are INR and serum albumin. If they are normal, the liver is functioning well despite the disease. Aubrey, MD PSC '81, UC '90, LTX '98, Recurrence '05 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 5, 2007 Report Share Posted February 5, 2007 Sorry to hear your son developed pancreatitis after having an ERCP and stent placement. I hope the removal goes a bit better. Cirrhosis is a diagnosis that can only be made via biopsy as it's a pathological diagnosis based, by definition, on bridging necrosis that is seen on looking at the biopsy tissue under a microscope. As mentioned, you can see it in some tissue samples and not in others. So it depends on how good the biopsy is and where they take it from in the liver. Since the liver regenerates the biopsy can miss areas of damage that would lead to a diagnosis of cirrhosis. I've had 8 liver biopsies. Or nine. Can't remember exactly. The first one I had showed cirrhosis about a year into my disease symptoms. And yet it took 18 years before my liver packed it in and I required a tx. So you never know the exact significance of saying there is cirrhosis. More important is how the liver is functioning. And the tests for that are INR and serum albumin. If they are normal, the liver is functioning well despite the disease. Aubrey, MD PSC '81, UC '90, LTX '98, Recurrence '05 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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