What does liver fibrosis mean? Pay attention to maintenance to effectively avoid it

Liver fibrosis is different from many other liver diseases. It is not contagious and often occurs in middle-aged and elderly people. It is not caused by a viral infection, but a long-term accumulated disease. Paying attention to daily maintenance can effectively avoid the occurrence of this disease.

Liver fibrosis is a pathophysiological process, which refers to the abnormal proliferation of connective tissue in the liver caused by various pathogenic factors. Any liver damage will lead to liver fibrosis during the process of liver repair and healing. If the damaging factors cannot be removed for a long time, the fibrosis process will continue for a long time and develop into cirrhosis. Therefore it is not an independent disease.

So far, there is no specific clinical diagnostic method for liver fibrosis. Imaging examinations including B-ultrasound, CT and liver ultrasound can provide clues in this regard. The four tests for liver fibrosis are greatly affected by liver inflammation and therefore have low specificity and are for clinical reference only. The introduction is as follows:

1. PCⅢ (type Ⅲ procollagen)

It reflects the synthesis of type III collagen in the liver. Its serum content is consistent with the degree of liver fibrosis and is significantly correlated with serum γ-globulin levels. PCⅢ is closely related to the activity of liver fibrosis formation, but has no specificity. When other organs become fibrotic, PCⅢ also increases. In patients with chronic hepatitis, persistently elevated PCⅢ indicates that the disease is developing towards cirrhosis, while a decrease in PCⅢ to normal may indicate that the disease is resolving. This indicates that PCⅢ is not only valuable in the early diagnosis of liver fibrosis, but also meaningful in the prognosis of chronic liver disease.

Serum PCⅢ level is closely correlated with the degree of liver fibrosis, reflecting the status of liver fiber synthesis and inflammatory activity. It increases significantly in the early stage, while serum PCⅢ may not increase in patients with old cirrhosis and some advanced cirrhosis and liver atrophy.

2. IV-C (type IV collagen)

It is the main component of the basement membrane and reflects the renewal rate of basement membrane collagen. An increase in its content can more sensitively reflect the process of liver fibrosis and is one of the early signs of liver fibrosis.

(1) It appears first during liver fibrosis and is suitable for early diagnosis of liver fibrosis.

(2) It can reflect the degree of liver fibrosis. As the disease progresses from chronic hepatitis to cirrhosis to liver cancer, the serum content of IV-C collagen gradually increases.