What is Fibroscan?
The FibroScan is a noninvasive way to gauge the health of your liver and determine what stage of liver disease you and your care team might be up against. Earlier, there was only invasive biopsy to measure the liver stiffness. With the FibroScan, liver stiffness is measured, which indicates whether or not scarring is present, and which can also indicate the extent of the scarring.
Scarring of the liver in the initial stages is called fibrosis, and more severe scarring is cirrhosis. The FibroScan is like a fibrosis scan that can use scarring measurements to provide a diagnosis or to track the progression of liver disease.
How do I prepare for my FibroScan?
FibroScan preparation is simple and straightforward. On the day of your procedure, do not eat or drink anything 3 hours before your test. You should wear comfortable clothes (e.g. shirt, loose dress) that can be moved/repositioned to allow the nurse to examine your right upper abdomen. Please do not wear any tight clothing to your appointment.
GOOD NEWS: FIBROSCAN IS PAINLESS TEST.
What should I expect during the FibroScan?
During the exam, you will be lying down on your back with the right arm raised and tucked behind your head. Preparation includes no food or drink three hours before the exam and you may wish to wear a looser fitting shirt as the skin covering your right rib cage area will need to be exposed in order to complete the exam. A doctor will place a probe, on your side near where your liver is. That probe sends painless sound vibration through your body and into your liver. The probe measures how fast it takes the vibration to travel through the liver. The faster it takes the vibration to travel through the liver, the stiffer the liver is. The examination itself takes about 10-15 minutes. You should plan to spend about 45 minutes at the clinic total. You may drive yourself to and from the test.
Your physician may recommend a FibroScan test if you have one of the following chronic liver conditions:
- Autoimmune Hepatitis
- Cirrhosis
- Genetic Diseases (such as Hemochromatosis and Wilson’s Disease)
- Hepatitis B
- Hepatitis C
- Alcoholic Liver Disease
- Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)
What Should I expect after the FibroScan?
The FibroScan computer will analyze the information from your test.