Hepatitis C

[opheliapu]

i Recently go to hospital for gall bladder stone checkup doctors advised me to operate this through leproscopy and when test are taken then Anti HCV found boderline and after 6 weeks when again test taken then HCV is diagnosed and its value recorded 13.22 and when HCV Qualitative PCR test taken then its result shows detected. detailed reports are attached this question for other blood samples also., please advise me what to do and at what stage my disese.

[willbb]

Posted by myself in an earlier thread today addressing the member mikesimons article copied regarding the  diminishing use of biopsy by many noted Hepatologists in light of the change in treatment for HCV(below):

Advising the Patient
In a nutshell, my answers were: 1) no, a biopsy is not essential, and 2) maybe you will need interferon, but if your liver is in good shape, then you can wait. My response may seem a bit paradoxical—I care very much about the liver disease stage when making a decision to treat or wait but I don’t think we need a piece of liver tissue to get the information. I still recommend a fair number of liver biopsies but, with interferon-free, all-oral therapies on the near-term horizon (2014?), I am increasingly comfortable relying on patient history, physical exam, routine laboratory tests, and liver imaging as well as noninvasive serum markers to obtain a picture of liver health. In the United States, we do not yet have routine access to transient elastography but, in many regions, this would also be a mainstay of liver staging.
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To Mike

It seems many Hepa's have been adopting this attitude ,negating the need  often for biopsy ,,especially in light of new treatment paradigms.

It was good to see that the FDA has finally aprroved the Fibroscan .as we have been using it relatively succesfully in Canada for years,often in combination with the "Fibrosure"  blood marker.

Thanks for posting the above.....

Will

[copyman]

Good advice from SYDS.Also good point about getting a liver sample for biopsy when doing the gall bladder surgery. Ask them to do a wedge core sample. This is the best type of sample for liver biopsy.

[SYDSDAD1111]

The tests taken only confirm you are infected with the hcv ,it does not tell you how much damage your liver has incurred because of your infection, further testing must be done to grade and stage your liver disease most people choose a biopsy of the liver,I did mine the same time I had my gallbladder removed, there are other methods to give a snapshot of your damage but a biopsy has been the gold standard, how you choose to accurately grade your disease is up to you and your doc,but the importand thing is getting rid of this disease and working on getting your health back. Please for your own sake...NO ALCOHOL and start educating yourself on your treatment options and don't just jump into the first RX your doc throws at you,learn about what your going to take and post his recommendations so you can get valuable feedback on the choice hes made for you....good luck

[opheliapu]

my age is 25 years and i am female.