Fibroscan vs. Biopsy

[android323]

Hi all,

I am just 4 weeks away from my biopsy and just happened to read about this Fibroscan technology.  Doesn't this seem the safer and frankly less painful option?  Is it not advisable to wait for this lovely new machine to arrive at a hospital near me?

[jumbojet1]

I had mine conducted in Canada. My doctor said it is very reliable especially at the upper end and lower end. My score was 7.1 and doctor is sending me for biopsy

[android323]

I reiterate...this is a great board...thanks everybody .....Biopsy it is

[copyman]

if you are in the USA then not sure if it will ever be approved. they use it in other countries but has yet to be approved by FDA. There are a few locations that have been testing here in the USA for several years but still no approval from the FDA. The last thing I had read was that basically it could tell you if you have cirrhosis but was not that accurate for various staging.  Maybe this is why the FDA did not approve it? I personally emailed the manufacturer Echosens back in 2007 and they said it would be approved by FDA in 2nd qtr of 2008. At this point the best option for accuracy is still the biopsy, especially if they take 3 samples from different parts of the liver.

[newleaf09]

I've read that that is an interesting, useful technology but if cirrhosis is suspected, it is not accurate enough to give a clear picture.  There are some early blood tests that may give a hint about cirrhosis, like the ratio between ALT & AST, mitochondrial IgG and a few others I don't recall any more.  If any of those indicate a possible problem, better to go with the needle biopsy.

Don't be unnerved by the biopsy.  When people have bad experiences, they post them, but most of us had biopsies and you don't hear from us because it was nothing.  There is a youtube of a biopsy that I watched and it was so quick and simple that it really helped calmed my nerves.  Mine went fine and I will request another for a year after treatment finishes.

Don't wait out of fear.  You really need to know where you are with liver damage to help you make treatment decisions like "Is it safe to wait or do I need to start this immediately before i get any more damage?".  

[Willy50]

Sorry to tell you but I don't think that the fibroscan has fared well in trials.  I too loved the idea, quick, non-invasive and immediate results...... but I believe that at issue it was not nearly reliable enough.  Some of this may have been the principle itself and I believe that some of it was due to operator skill, training or "art".

That is my quick take on it and I could be wrong.  There was just a presentation on it in a major liver conference.  Quite soon we could be reading better informed opinion than mine.  ; )

Bottom line though, they may not get approved.  IF you want a quick and painless read a fibrosure test could possibly be the ticket.  I put off getting a biopsy but finally had one 10 moths ago; it was a very good and relatively painless procedure and I got a very good sample taken and a good score.  

NOT knowing has quite a few drawbacks IMHO.  
By the way; my tests- both the Fibrosure and Biopsy had concordant results; they agreed.  That unfortunately was the issue with the fibroscan, to the best of my understanding.  There was not nearly enough agreement in the scan results when compared to the biopsy results.

best,
Willy