by Kesshia Peyton
Published: Mon, October 20, 2008 - 9:45 am CST
Last Updated: Mon, October 20, 2008 - 9:51 am CST
People diagnosed with hepatitis or other liver diseases need to know if the liver is scarring. The best test is a biopsy, but it's avoided by many. However, a new blood test may be a better way to the hard truth. Scientists at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center have found a way to keep tabs on the liver with a simple blood test. The test looks for an antibody that only shows up in people with liver damage.
"If you have significant scarring of the liver or significant fibrosis, that measurement is higher in the blood. It turns out that the more liver disease you have, the more of this antibody in you, that there is," said Virologist Dr. Timothy Block.
The test isn't available yet… but it's moving forward.
"The next step for this would be to get it developed as some kind of assay kit or available to diagnosticians or practitioners," said Dr. Block.
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