Liver biopsy is when a small piece of liver is removed and examined under the microscope. A biopsy is very useful in telling us how the liver actually looks. This can give us useful information on:
How much fat is in the liver
How active the immune system is in the liver, and how much injury is happening
How stressed the liver cells look in coping with these injuring factors
Visit the Ontario Hepatitis Treatment website to see how a biopsy is performed.
Some people feel that a liver biopsy is no longer needed because you already know a lot about the liver from blood tests. There are some conditions where a biopsy gives us much more information than blood tests can. Blood tests may not tell us everything, such as how much stress the liver cells are under in response to fat or the immune system.
Read on to learn more about liver fibrosis.