what does my pathology report mean?

[rissa1958]

I recently had a liver biopsy and the pathologist wrote:

Examination of portal areas show a mild to minimal lymphoplasmacytic inflammatory cell infiltrate.  Piecemeal necrosis is only focally noted within portal areas.  Stains for trichrome highlight periportal fibrosis without formation of fibrous septae.  Stains for reticulin demonstrate a normal reticulin pattern.  Stains for iron are negative.  Stains for copper are negative.  Mild macrovesicular steatosis is present.

I am 50 years old and had my gall bladder, appendix and liver biopsy done on 1/29/09.  I still have localized pain in the area of the liver and had hoped that I would feel better by now.

What does all this mean???

[Marc1955]

Does the report also list numbers for stage and grade? Normally biopsies yield a pair of numbers, both on a scale of 0-4. A low numbers indicates a low degree of liver damage and progress, higher numbers are more serious. The text seems to indicate mild liver damage. Most of us folks on the board go by our numbers because this sort of text is hard to follow. For example, I'm stage 2 grade 2 which indicates moderate liver damage.

[lalapple]

i'm  not a doc, so can't really interpret this properly.  best thing to get a response of the doc who wrote that note to explain it to you.  have read somewhere that some people get sore from the bx.  hope you get the answers you need soon.

good luck and feel better.