4 Stages or 4?

[deisel2750]

I would love to know he answer to either of these or whatever answers you have, for my sweetheart.

Thanks Much and have the best day you can!

1. Are there 5 Stages or 6 of Chirrosis of the liver?
2. How many forms of treatment are there for Hep C, beside Interferon?

[Dee1956]

Great answer, thanks so very much sir

[willbb]

There are different scaling methods to ascertain amount of liver damage(fibrosis)  meaning "stage " of damage and  " grading"( meaning amount of inflammation going on.)

The most common scales are the Metavir,Knodell and Ishak methods . In N.A the use of the Metavir system is most prevalent.(see below)

Also,,there are some non-invasive methods used to ascertain damage being the Fibroscan and fibrosure blood markers

All methods have some degree of error.

How many forms are tx. are there??

Today for Geno type 1 there is a triple drug therapy (Inteferon ?ribaviran and either Victrelis or Incivek) and for all other geno types the common method is the combination of just Infereon /riba.

Best to you....
Will

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702953/

DIAGNOSIS OF FIBROSIS.

The complete evaluation of a patient with diffuse liver diseases requires clinical evaluation, laboratory tests, and pathological examination. The liver biopsy is regarded as the historical ‘gold standard’ for diagnosis and assessment of prognosis in CLD.[28,29] At least three scoring methods are commonly used to stage liver fibrosis: the Knodell, Ishak, and METAVIR scores.[30,31] The Knodell and METAVIR score fibrosis from stage 0–4, with stage 4 as cirrhosis, whereas Ishak scores fibrosis from 0–6 where 5 is incomplete or early cirrhosis and 6 indicates established cirrhosis.[32] These methods are semi-quantitative and the invasiveness of liver biopsies with its associated life-threatening risks and morbidity make it a poor choice when considering assessment of liver fibrosis progression or regression. Furthermore, there is the issue of sampling error, defined as variable levels of fibrosis throughout the liver, with biopsy only examining a small (1/50,000) portion of the liver.[33,34] Liver biopsy has been shown to have significant inter and intraobserver variability among pathologists, with an average 20% error rate in the staging of fibrosis.[35] The minimum suitable length of liver tissue needed for assessing liver fibrosis reliably is 25 mm and the presence of an experienced hepatopatholgist is important.[34