Posted 3/5/2015 11:24 PM (GMT 0)
I spent some time looking for information of elastography testing for AIH and some criteria for staging liver damage based on that text.
The articles seemed to say that they like this new method, as it was not invasive, and seemed to work pretty well and consistently across the board (men women, different ages, though not so good with patients with ascites or high body mass) but they were not saying that any hard and fast rules had been set up for ranges for a particular stage….fibrosis to cirrhosis with a nice 1, 2, 3, 4 staging list.
I found some very complex medical research that said the same thing…no firm levels have been chronicled…,more research indicated.
One did have some criteria that seemed to be emerging, but I was not able to look at the numbers and the report you received to come to any idea of what your numbers meant. Does any of this make sense to you? I add the caveat that I am a civilian and make no claims to understand this stuff at all.
Journal of Ultrasound, February 2014 http://www.jultrasoundmed.org/content/33/2/197.long:
Transient elastography more accurately detects cirrhosis than significant fibrosis. Several meta-analyses have confirmed that transient elastography appears to be a reliable method for the diagnosis and exclusion of cirrhosis as opposed to predicting cirrhosis.
For the diagnosis of cirrhosis, transient elastographic cutoff values have been found to be between 11.8 and 14.6 kPa (1.98 and 2.21 m/s).
In clinical practice, liver stiffness values from 2.5 to 7.0 kPa (0.91–1.53 m/s) indicate mild or no fibrosis, and values greater than 12.5 kPa (2.04 m/s) are suggestive of cirrhosis.
Best to you,
Mama Lama