
Hepatitis C Support Group
Hepatitis C is a blood-borne viral disease which can cause liver inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is spread by blood-to-blood contact with an infected person's blood. Many people with HCV infection have no symptoms and are unaware of the need to seek treatment. Hepatitis C infects an estimated 150-200 million people worldwide.
Metavir and Knodell I know and here's a link to a page with explanations.
www.hcvadvocate.org/hepatitis/factsheets_pdf/grade_stage.pdf
Another method, Ishak, had the 6 as opposed to 4 - see below:
Ishak Fibrosis Score
A scoring system that measures the degree of fibrosis (scarring) of the liver, which is caused by chronic necroinflammation. A score of 0 represents no fibrosis, and 6 is established cirrhosis. Scores of 1 and 2 indicate degrees of portal fibrosis; stages 3 and 4 indicate bridging fibrosis. A score of 5 indicates nodular formation and incomplete cirrhosis.
Knodell Scores for Evaluation of Liver Histology
The Knodell scoring system, also called the Histologic Activity Index (HAI), classifies liver biopsy specimens according to scores into four categories of histologic features:
* Periportal and/or bridging necrosis (scores from 0 to 10)
* Intralobular degeneration and focal necrosis (scores from 0 to 4)
* Portal inflammation (scores from 0 to 4)
* Fibrosis (scores from 0 to 4)
The Knodell Necroinflammatory Score is the sum of scores from parts I-III, hence a range of 0 to 18, and measures the degree of acute necroinflammatory activity in the liver.
The Knodell Fibrosis Score (part IV, above) measures the degree of scarring in the liver. Scarring builds up over time due to chronic necroinflammatory activity, ultimately leading to cirrhosis.
Recently, the Ishak fibrosis score has become the preferred method for evaluating liver fibrosis because it rates fibrosis according to seven categories on a continuous integer scale, as opposed to the discontinuous 4-point Knodell fibrosis score.
As far as a timeline for progress, there is none. Your dr may be able to give you a guesstimate but there are no guarantees one way or the the other.
Live clean and hope for the best.
my AST is 58 and my Alt is 29-sign of cirrhosis when they change positions-all my other numbers are normal-go figure. I have done so much research and I know this much. No one can predict diease progression period. Diet is the clue-eat as little red meat and high fat foods and sugar-sugar feeds the virus big time. Go to www.hepcchallenge.org and help get those HEP C bills passed Stay well