Mercy Health – Cincinnati, which provides advanced, quality, compassionate care in your neighborhood through its care network, announces that Clermont Hospital now offers patients non-invasive, painless liver assessments with FibroScan®, the first device the FDA has cleared as an aid to management of patients with liver disease.
The liver is the largest solid organ in the body and serves as the body’s filter and warehouse, removing toxins and waste products from the blood stream and storing vitamins, minerals and glucose that the body will need later. It helps to manage cholesterol, hormones and sugar and also regulates fat storage and blood clotting factors.
However, many things can damage the liver, including:
• Medications, including acetaminophen
• Some herbal and alternative remedies
• Infections, such as hepatitis
• Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
• Alcohol abuse
Liver stiffness can be a sign of liver damage. FibroScan works by emitting a pulse of energy which patients feel as a slight vibration on their skin during the 10-minute procedure. FibroScan measures the speed and strength of this energy as it travels, which provides a measure of the liver’s stiffness. Doctors use this information as part of a broader evaluation of the liver’s health.
“Mercy Health is pleased to offer this important advance in liver management to our patients. It provides quick, pain-free results that previously might only have been available from a liver biopsy,” said Justin Krueger, Clermont Hospital President.
Mercy Health Physicians and gastroenterologists Ashutosh Naniwadekar, MD and Thomas Schussler, MD have FibroScan training and practice from Mercy Health – Clermont Gastroenterology. Dr. Naniwadekar also practices from Mercy Health – Anderson Gastroenterology. For more information or to make an appointment, please call 513-924-8817.
FibroScan examinations are covered by most insurance plans.