Anyone Have a Link To A Decent Explanation of Liver Architecture?

[RobertBeWell]

I recently was reading several posts regarding biopsy findings, including such terms as "portal to portal bridging" etc. I was trying to find some decent sites on the web that might have a good description of the liver, along with diagrams. Then when I read biopsy findings, I should be able to "picture" what they mean.

I found a couple sites, but they were either so highly technical medically that I lost interest in 20 seconds, or the pictures were poor, etc.

I'm looking for something with clear diagrams and some meat to it, yet understandable to someone who doesn't have twenty years of medical training.

Anyone have a favorite link?

[RobertBeWell]

No worries mate, I just like to be able to intelligently converse with those charged with my care :-)

Thanks for the link.

[willing]

nice intro thanks. A more detailed overview written by a pathologist is
"The liver biopsy in chronic hepatitis C: a view from the other side of the microscope."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15731997
( free access on medscape)

See also slides at the start of Afdahl's talk at DART09
http://ihlpress.com/gaj_hepdart2009.html
for a sense of what progressive fibrosis looks like on the slides (w staining)

very impressive that you're doing your research ahead of the bx! however be forewarned - in my observation those most satisfied and certain with their bx interpretation are those who had one bx read by one pathologist. The more you investigate the question of your current stage, multiple bxs, multiple readings of the same slides by different pathologists the faster certainty fades, replaced by skepticism about liver staging being  accurately measurable

[newleaf09]

Thanks for posting.  Now I can go back and completely translate my biopsy results.  Very useful!

[RobertBeWell]

Ahh, I found one:

http://www.aaimedicine.org/journal-of-insurance-medicine/jim/2001/033-01-0109.pdf

It's written for an insurance industry, so it's pretty basic, but not too basic, and has a very clear diagram showing exactly what is meant by some of the terms on a biopsy.