Please Help!

[Nikki22919]

Does anyone know if anti-smooth muscle antibodies are associated with having hepatitis C? I'm having my gallbladder removed because of gallstones and when my doctor did an ultrasound it showed that my liver is mildly enlarged. He ordered a liver function test and everything came back ok except for a weak positive or low titer of anti-smooth muscle antibodies. I'm now worried that I have chronic hepatitis C. My doctor thinks it might be autoimmune hepatitis but he wants to do a liver biopsy when he removes my gallbladder.

[HCA]

If you had chronic Hep C it is most likely that there would have been other biochemical markers other than  a borderline abnormality of the smooth muscle antibody.
I suspect that as your doctor thinks it may be auto-immune hepatitis, which tends to affect young women like yourself, he has already looked for Hep C.
The antibody test could easily have been done at the same time.
If you do not have risk factors for Hep C i.e history of IV drug use or blood transfusions then it is most unlikely that you have it.

[Bill1954]

I have a very limited understanding of ASMA testing; I believe it’s used in conjunction with antinuclear antibody testing to help diagnose autoimmune hepatitis as you mentioned. The only association with HCV that I’m aware of is that doctors often use the ANA test to *rule out* autoimmune hep prior to treating patients for HCV; the treatment for one condition often exacerbates the other disease if co infection is present. It sounds as if your doctor is on the ball; hopefully, a biopsy sample will help complete the diagnosis. Here’s a good website to reference for blood test results:

http://www.labtestsonline.org/

and more on the ASMA test:

http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/asma/test.html

Good luck and take care—

Bill