confussed

what is stage 4/6 fibrosis and grade 7/8 inflamation (inflammation) ?
I really don't understand my doctor. He says how bad I am ,But at the same time he don't tell me what anything means. when I look things up on the computer It realy doesen't make sence to me eather.

[Marcia2202]

I didn't have a biopsy myself, but here is a site which explains how to read the results.

http://janis7hepc.com/biopsy.htm

I hope it will be helpful.

Marcia

[willing]

sounds like your dr may be referring to a pathology report that used the Ishak (or modified HAI ) scoring system. Ishak quantifies fibrosis stage on 0-6 scale and inflammation/activity using 4 categories, three with scales of 0-4 and one 0-6 for a total value of 0-18. Two of those 4 components refer to inflammation (portal inflammation and focal inflammation) and each is scored 0-4 so the total inflammation score would range from 0-8 which is what your dr may have been referring to.

Most discussion on this forum refer to the more common metavir system that uses a 0-4 scale for both. Here are some links to learn more:

1)  a discussion of the correspondence between metavir and ishak scores
http://www.janis7hepc.com/biopsies.htm

2) a good graphic summary of what different fibrosis stages look like under the microscope on either metavir or ishak scales
http://www.phoenixcme.org/2005_resource_kit/content/patient_poster.pdf

( the blue areas mark scarring as revealed by applying trichrome stain to the biopsy slides)

3) two journal articles written by pathologists that go into gory detail about how they come up with a report

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17486049
(which is free and includes a funny pathologist-eye view of what a pain-in-the-a** hcv patients are with  their obsession with biopsies)

and
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17692984
which you may have to go to a Univ library to access.

overall, it's not great news, but you'll find plenty of people in similar situation posting here. You'll probably want to start thinking about treating.
best wishes.

[Deb_c430]

so nice to read you again!  Been awhile!

[msmagic42]

I have been going to alot of doctor visits. I just got the psyc. drugs. (rispradal)
My psyc said that until my doc gets my thyroid fixed the meds won't do any good . So now I'm waiting for another appt. There is just so much going on I guess I just get lost.
But it always makes me feel good to hear from ya'll.

                                                           Thank You,
                                                               Karla

[msmagic42]

Thank you I'm going to check it out.
                                           Karla

[msmagic42]

Thank Ya'll for all your help.

                                 Karla