Re: Re: Any ideas would be appreciated: Thank you

[Guest guest]

Thanks . I did benefit from your response, too. My doctors were staging my PSC according to the biopsy result. What you mentioned does make a lot of sense. I did often wondered about that.

Subject: Re: Any ideas would be appreciated.To: Date: Monday, March 30, 2009, 3:27 AM

Dear Cathy;I am not an expert on liver biopsies, and I honestly don't know how reliable they are for AIH. I've heard that for PSC they are not always reliable for staging because the disease may not be uniform throughout the liver, and because the biopsy can sample from only a small part of the liver.But according to this article, it is the most important diagnostic procedure for AIH:Autoimmune Hepatitis: Differential Diagnoses & WorkupAuthor: C Wolf, MD, FACP, FACG, AGAF, Medical Director of Liver Transplantation, Westchester Medical Center, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatobiliary Diseases, Department of Medicine, New York Medical CollegeCoauthor(s): Unnithan V Raghuraman, MD, FRCP, FACG, FACP, Consulting Staff, Department of Gastroenterology, St Medical CenterUpdated: Jul 31, 2008Overviewhttp://emedicine. medscape. com/article/ 172356-overviewDifferential Diagnoses & Workuphttp://emedicine. medscape. com/article/ 172356-diagnosisTreatment & Medicationhttp://emedicine. medscape. com/article/ 172356-treatmentFollow-uphttp://emedicine. medscape. com/article/ 172356-followup(Sorry, but I am not sure whether or not you will need to register on this site to gain access to this 5-part article?)Perhaps some of the laboratory test results listed here may help you in your quest? Best regards,Dave

R.> Do you know how reliable liver biopsies normally are? It was preformed at a good transplant center so I assumed it was done, and read correctly.