auto immunce hepatitis

[BABS444]

Approx 10 years ago I was diagnosed with auto immune hepatitis. Since then I have been asked several times is this Hepatitis C or what? I've always answered the same, they just told me auto immune hepatitis. Today I picked up labs showing stating my Glom Filt Rate, Est is 56 with normal from 60-128. I didn't even know what GFR was so I looked it up on the net and up pops Hepatitis C.

Other labs results

Glucose, Serum 141 with normal being 65-99

BUN 34 with normal being 50-26

Creatinine, Serum 1.01 with normal being 0.57-1.00

BUN/Creatinine Ratio 34 with normal being 8-27

I've lost approx 30 pounds in 5 months and have not been on a diet or trying to lose weight. I've not had much of an appetite and this is a side effect of my liver medication 100mg

Could use some advice please

[CoWriter]

Normal BUN results are 7 to 20 (with slight variation at some labs).  Did you make a typo when you wrote normal is 50-26?  

I'm guessing you meant 5-26

[jmjm530]

Hepatitis C and Auoimmune Hepatitis are two entirely different conditions. One is viral (Hepatitis C) and one is not. You can one, the other, or both. If you have Hepatitis C, you will have what is called a positive viral load test, sometimes called a PCR test. If you aren't sure what you have, speak to your doctor. If your doctor isn't a liver specialist (hepatologist) now might be a good time to consult with one.

-- Jim

[CoWriter]

Infection with Hep C can lead to autoimmune hepatitis in a minority of patients.

It's difficult to treat these patients because if you treat with Interferon, it can exacerbate the autoimmune hep.  Steroids are used for people with autoimmune hepatitis due to non-viral causes, but in patients with hepatitis C, steroids can increase viral replication.

So a liver biopsy is done to determine which disease process is causing the greatest damage to the liver....the HCV infection or the autoimmune hepatitis.  If the HCV infection is predominant and the autoimmune hepatitis is mild, then interferon is considered.  But if the autoimmune hepatitis is more severe, then steroids or other immunosuppressant drugs are used.

[CoWriter]

Hepatitis C can lead to autoimmune hepatitis in a minority of patients.  But most people who have autoimmune hepatitis don't have Hep C.  Autoimmune hepatitis is caused by your immune system attacking liver cells and causing liver damage.  Hepatitis C is caused by a virus.  

Re: lab work....

The glucose...blood sugar is elevated but if the test was not done fasting then it means nothing.  

If you take Prednisone, it is important to keep checking your blood sugar (fasting)because long-term use of Prednisone can cause diabetes.  

The BUN and Creatinine are used to evaluate kidney function.   If the results are too high, that means the kidneys are not filtering as well as they should.

However, there are other things (like dehydration) that can cause them to be high.

The GFR..... Glomerular Filtration Rate is the best test to measure your level of kidney function and determine your stage of kidney disease.

There are 5 stages of chronic liver disease:

Stage 1....Protein in urine and normal GFR.......GFR >90
Stage 2....Kidney damage & mild decrease in GFR......GFR 60-89
Stage 3....Moderate decrease in GFR......GFR 30-59
Stage 4....Severe decrease in GFR......GFR 15-29
Stage 5....Kidney failure (dialysis or kidney transplant needed)......GFR <15


So your results indicate Stage 3

[CoWriter]

I meant to say, "There are 5 stages of chronic KIDNEY disease".....NOT liver.
Sorry.  


Source:
http://www.kidney.org/kidneydisease/ckd/knowGFR.cfm#chart

[jmjm530]

Jm: Infection with Hep C can lead to autoimmune hepatitis in a minority of patients.
It's difficult to treat these patients because if you treat with Interferon... So a liver biopsy is done to determine which disease process is causing the greatest damage to the liver....the HCV infection or the autoimmune hepatitis.  If the HCV infection is predominant and the autoimmune hepatitis is mild, then interferon is considered.  But if the autoimmune hepatitis is more severe, then steroids or other immunosuppressant drugs are used...
---------------
Yes, I know all that. Did I say something in my post that made you think I didn't :)

[jmjm530]

CO:
Infection with Hep C can lead to autoimmune hepatitis in a minority of patients.
-------------
BTW this was the reason per my first post, I thought "Bab" should first find out with certainty whether or not she had Hep C given her dx and doubts.  If you hang around here a bit, you will find gross cases of miscommunication between patients and doctors, not to mention simply bad doctor work. As stated, personally I'd first seek clarification with my doctor if they are up to the task. If not, then I'd yank my records over to a liver specialist to go over.

-- Jim

[virgocharm]

hi, is it hep c , if you have a viral load of 150,000, and the test says positive, negative? with autoimmune disease that is clinical?

[CoWriter]

Having a viral load confirms that you have Hepatitis C.

[BABS444]

thanks for your comments

[BABS444]

my liver medication is Mercaptopurine 100mg--I noticed when reading over my previous post that all I put was 100mg--sorry

[SJL]

Hey Jim-I've caught you on-line agsin,( I hope!), so could you please e-amil me personally? I am not sure how this is done within the forum-but I do get e-mails this way from others.

I would really like to be able to communicate with you, without bothering everyone else.

I will post my e-mail-but it it is a before, I am sure that it will bleeped out. sjlnsb over at yahoo.
SJL

[SJL]

Wow! I can't believe the typed mistakes in my message. Is anyone else experiencing this? It's rather scary.
SJL