FibroScan ultrasound offers painless way to help detect liver diseases

As waistlines grow, more people’s weight is on the rise, and so is fatty liver disease. It’s a serious medical condition that increases the risk of liver cancer and cirrhosis, but now doctors can monitor the progression locally.

Analyzing the liver is difficult and problematic for patients. The standard has been a biopsy, which involves going under anesthesia to get a tissue sample.

If someone has a chronic issue, they need repeated biopsies but advances in technology have created a painless option.

A lot can go wrong with the liver; cirrhosis, hepatitis, liver cancer, and now there’s a rise in fatty liver. Especially a form not related to alcohol rather one that’s tied to obesity. It’s on the rise and can cause very serious problems.

Dr. Mazen Albeldawi is a gastroenterologist with NCH. He said “We have almost 100 million folks in the United States who have fatty liver disease. A lot of those folks don’t know they have fatty liver disease.”

An elevation of liver enzymes is what typically alerts doctors to an issue. Getting the most accurate measure then requires them to go deeper and get a liver sample or biopsy.

“[It’s] an invasive procedure, where you get local anesthesia,” Albeldawi explained. “There’s pain associated with it, and there are potential complications as well.”

Now NCH has a new, painless option. An enhanced ultrasound-FibroScan (Liver Elastrography) that creates a view of what’s going on inside the liver.

He said, “It allows us to use a probe and assess the degree in amount of fat in the liver as well as the stiffness of the liver or fibrosis in the liver.”

These conditions can cause the liver to fail entirely. Fatty liver is now the top cause of liver transplantation in the United States.

This device provides real-time data and a score that allows doctors to not only see what’s happening now but to follow progression over time.

“Determining that information allows us to kind of implement treatment strategies to prevent progression of liver disease in those individuals,” Albeldawi added.

Getting a scan once a year can give people the comfort of avoiding liver failure, without the discomfort of multiple biopsies.

Based on lab results and risk factors, weight being a big one, doctors might order this scan for a diagnosis.