Learn About FibroScan® and How It Evaluates Liver Health

At Metropolitan Gastroenterology Associates, our staff is pleased to provide individuals with diagnosis and treatment utilizing cutting-edge methods. This tool helps our doctors provide leading-edge services, more brief visits, and more accurate outcomes in contrast to more traditional techniques.

By offering FibroScan (liver elastography) to New Orleans, LA individuals, our doctors will be able to observe liver wellness and diagnose and supervise several different diseases of the liver. To hear more information on the ways FibroScan can help you improve your liver health, reach out to your nearest Metropolitan Gastroenterology Associates to book a consultation today.

What should I know about FibroScan?

As a nonsurgical liver assessment, FibroScan involves ultrasound technology to deliver a full image of your liver well-being, observe the progression of liver issues, and work to uncover liver problems. When you have this quick test, your GI specialist will request that you lie flat and put your right hand under your head. Your technician will pass a transducer, much like those involved in ultrasound tests, on your liver. As we perform this procedure, we can:

• Track liver wellness following a transplanted liver
• Test the health of the liver to determine the presence of liver scarring
• Detect problems in your liver
• Oversee the advancement of liver conditions
• Verify liver fibrosis

In the majority of circumstances, FibroScan can be used rather than undergoing a more invasive liver biopsy. Most individuals choose this method because there is no need for additional time off of everyday routines or seek out a person to take them home from the examination, and it is virtually painless. Though this test might not always take away the need for a biopsy test, it permits your provider to acquire swift images with more accuracy.

How is FibroScan performed?

When you have your FibroScan exam at Metropolitan Gastroenterology Associates, the special device will utilize sound waves into your liver. The probe will inspect about three cubic centimeters of the liver – about 100 times the scale of a biopsy test. As soon as the sound pulses are emitted, it will take them longer to make their way through a healthy liver. However, the ultrasound pulses will travel through a stiff liver pretty fast, and possibly faster the stiffer the liver is.

The FibroScan test can also show the volume of fat in the liver by tracking the amplitude and intensity of ultrasound waves. Whenever the sound frequencies are delivered, they will be received into fatty livers more in comparison with healthier livers. The fatty liver has a higher rate of attenuation, although the healthier liver will have a lower attenuation rate.

All of these details will be documented using our specialized technology, which lets your GI doctor discuss your outcomes with you in real time. You can talk to your specialist about questions during your exam, or you can wait and discuss them once the results are shown in-depth.

Why would you have a FibroScan exam?

If you experience signs or symptoms of liver disease, such as abdominal pain, brown urine, yellow-colored skin or eyes, or something similar, your New Orleans, LA digestive health doctor might suggest a FibroScan to assess your liver function.

Depending on your problems, health history, and additional factors, our team might use FibroScan to assess or help our diagnosis of:

• NASH (nonalcoholic steatohepatitis)
• Alcohol liver disease
• Hepatitis B or C
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
• Excess iron

Receive a FibroScan in New Orleans, LA

If you find that you or a loved one has symptoms and signs of liver disease, have had liver disease in the past, or have a family history of liver problems, your GI doctor might order a FibroScan exam. This swift and effective exam could help detect liver disease and assess the total wellness of your liver, providing a more precise way to address and check for liver conditions.

To hear more about FibroScan and how it can help you maintain your liver and overall well-being, call Metropolitan Gastroenterology Associates now to set up an appointment.