A while ago, I just had a health check and the liver function index was normal. How could the liver tumor grow so big in a short period of time?

Something like this happens every once in a while in some hospital cases. These patients think that as long as they go for a physical examination, the liver function test results are normal and there is nothing wrong with the liver. This kind of mistake The knowledge of the disease is deeply ingrained in the hearts of many people. Everyone mistakenly believes that as long as the blood test for alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase is sufficient to judge liver problems.

Therefore, if you think that the medical report is normal and there is no problem with the liver, it is a big mistake. It is not uncommon for many clinical cases to miss the opportunity for treatment due to wrong knowledge of the disease. So how to properly protect the liver? Let’s start with a complete liver exam.

Normal liver function does not mean no liver disease

It is believed that normal liver function means that there is no problem with the liver. This wrong knowledge of liver disease causes many people to go to the hospital for treatment, often in the advanced stage of the disease and cannot be cured. Even doctors in hospitals ignore other tests because they only look at the liver function index. As a result, the body felt unwell and the examination was already in the middle and late stages of liver cancer. To investigate the reason, it is still caused by incomplete knowledge of liver disease and incomplete testing.

Many people think that the values ​​of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase are normal, which means that there is no problem with the liver at all. But in fact, liver diseases such as cirrhosis or liver tumors are not necessarily reflected in these two test indicators. Although liver function is one of the must-tested items in health examinations, many people have more or less misunderstandings about this examination.

Elevated alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase indicate liver inflammation

Alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase are the two most abundant enzymes in liver cells. If there is inflammation in the liver, or cell necrosis is caused for any reason, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase will be released, resulting in an increase in the value of these two enzymes in the blood. However, the low values ​​of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase do not mean that the patient does not have liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.

In the early stage of liver cancer, these two values ​​will not be high, because when the liver cancer is growing, only the liver cells that are oppressed and invaded by the liver cancer will be necrotic. Therefore, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase may still be normal. Raised, the value will not be too high.

Therefore, in order to prevent liver disease, you cannot just rely on liver function tests. Especially in China, there are quite a lot of people with hepatitis B. Many people don’t even know they have hepatitis B. They only find out that they are carriers of hepatitis B when they discover liver tumors.

Blood and ultrasonography are essential

In fact, a complete liver examination does not need to spend a lot of money. A complete liver examination, including liver function, chronic hepatitis virus and liver cancer index (alpha-fetoprotein), abdominal ultrasound and other examination items, is enough to detect whether there is a problem with the liver.

Since liver function only means whether there is inflammation in the liver, can we just confirm whether there is viral hepatitis, or only perform liver cancer index test (alpha-fetoprotein)?

The answer is: no. Every type of examination has its blind spots. We must not be superstitious about any one type of examination, such as the examination of liver cancer index. It is indeed one of the good methods for early detection of liver cancer. However, about one-third of patients with small liver cancer have a normal alpha-fetoprotein value, so it cannot be used to diagnose liver cancer alone, but an abdominal ultrasound must be added for early diagnosis.

In order to prevent the occurrence of liver disease, any kind of examination cannot be missing, nor can we just trust the results of any kind of examination. Although abdominal ultrasound is a powerful tool for liver cancer examination, it is not a panacea and has dead ends. People with severe fatty liver are very It is difficult to detect early liver cancer by abdominal ultrasound, and it is also difficult to detect early liver cancer by abdominal ultrasound. Although ultrasound has its blind spots, it allows doctors to see the liver and other abdominal organs for early diagnosis of cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Normal people should be checked every 2-3 years, and high-risk groups should be checked every six months

To prevent the occurrence of liver disease, it is necessary to have a complete liver examination, so as not to miss the golden opportunity for treatment. If there is no problem with these examinations, there is no need to carry out the examination every year. Normal people can do it every 2-3 years.

High-risk groups need follow-up inspections every six months

If you have chronic viral hepatitis or a family history of liver cancer or liver cirrhosis, it is best to go to the hospital for regular follow-up examinations every six months to a year. If there is a missing tool, liver cancer about 1cm in size can be detected by ultrasound.

Generally speaking, it takes about 5 months for liver cancer to grow from 1cm to 3cm. If you do not see liver cancer on the first ultrasound, check it again after 4 to 6 months. The liver cancer should still be less than 3cm, and the treatment effect should be good. This is why people at high risk of liver cancer must have an ultrasound every 4-6 months.

In addition to the above inspections, if people in high-risk groups feel tired and unwell at ordinary times, they should go to the hospital to find a hepatobiliary doctor immediately, and must not delay. Because the liver does not have nerves, it is often too late to go to the hospital for examination when the patient feels uncomfortable. Fatigue is also a manifestation of liver disease, so after the patient rests, the tiredness still exists, and it is best to go to the hospital to find a specialist for examination. .

Finally, I would like to remind the public that whether they are high-risk groups of liver cancer or not, it is best for everyone to have a complete liver examination to detect and prevent the occurrence of liver cancer as soon as possible, so as not to miss the opportunity for treatment; If you will suffer from liver cancer, do a complete liver examination, just to let everyone know your liver condition, follow up the examination regularly, and early prevention or early detection, so as to grasp the golden treatment period.

High-tech examinations make liver disease invisible?

With the development of science and technology, more and more people believe in high-tech image examination, thinking that these technologies can find small tumors in the liver and achieve the purpose of prevention. High-tech images are indeed more accurate than ultrasound, and can detect tumors smaller than 1 cm, but not every machine and every examination can achieve this effect, and sometimes there is an element of luck.

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and CT can provide further information on the nature of liver tumors. Sometimes the patient’s alpha-fetoprotein continues to rise, but no suspicious lesions can be found on the ultrasound scan, so CT or MRI is needed to look for the possibility of liver cancer, especially close to the diaphragm or blocked by air or bone If the tumor is hidden in the place, it is difficult for ultrasound to scan here.

For example, some liver cancers are of infiltrative type rather than obvious masses, and there is no obvious difference from liver cirrhosis on ultrasound scans, and it also needs to be judged by high-tech examinations. CT or MRI can also check whether the lymph nodes outside the liver or the large blood vessels in the abdominal cavity are damaged, which has a significant impact on the treatment of liver cancer.

But not everyone needs these tests, usually an ultrasound is enough to understand the condition of the liver.

Who should have a complete liver test?

Almost all people need to do a complete liver examination. If there are high-risk factors for the disease, they will be followed up regularly according to the time. In addition, if there are people who are exposed to carbon tetrachloride and aflatoxin at work, it is best to have a complete liver. Inspection of. The following are the inspection items that different groups of people should accept:

1. If you do not know whether you are a carrier of chronic hepatitis virus, you should do the following tests first, including:

Hepatitis B Test

Hepatitis C Testing

liver function test

Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)

abdominal ultrasound

2. If you confirm that you are a hepatitis virus carrier, you must do the following checks regularly:

liver function test

Abdominal Ultrasound

Alpha-fetoprotein test

3. How often to check:

Ordinary people or those who have had hepatitis B and have antibodies in the body: check every 3 years

Hepatitis B virus carriers: check every six months to one year

Family history of liver cancer: check every six months

Liver cirrhosis: Check every 3-6 months

People who are receiving treatment for liver cancer and those who have completed treatment: check every 3 months

I often feel very tired, but the liver test results are fine. Could it be that the test technology is not good enough and I need to change another test?

There are many reasons for fatigue, and it is not necessarily because of poor liver function that fatigue occurs. Generally speaking, when people go to the hospital to check the liver, there is no problem with the doctor’s interpretation. As long as it is a specialist doctor, there is usually no mistake. Find another hospital for another checkup every month.

I have hepatitis B and the liver function is not normal. Why is the ultrasound normal? Can I do an abdominal ultrasound alone if the liver function is normal?

Ultrasound diagnosis is a morphological diagnosis. The liver may be inflamed, but not to the point where an ultrasound can see it, so the ultrasound diagnosis will be normal. In addition, hepatitis caused by different causes cannot be distinguished under ultrasound. Therefore, you cannot tell whether you have hepatitis B or hepatitis C from an ultrasound examination alone. You must rely on a blood test to find out.

Chinese medicine says my pulse is “strings”, which means that the liver fire is prosperous. However, blood draws and ultrasound are normal after seeing Western medicine. Do I need to do a more in-depth liver examination?

unnecessary. “Liver fire” in Chinese medicine is different from the indicators of liver function in Western medicine. Generally speaking, as long as there is no chronic viral hepatitis, liver function, alpha-fetoprotein and abdominal ultrasound are all normal, there is no need to spend any more time. Money for other examinations, unless the body still has symptoms of fatigue, jaundice, etc., it is necessary to go to a large hospital to find a hepatobiliary doctor for a detailed examination.

There is no abnormality in the annual physical examination, why is it suddenly discovered that he has liver cancer in a certain medical treatment?

Many patients have such doubts. First of all, a problem should be clarified. Even if the complete liver examination is normal every year, it is possible that a liver tumor will be found in the re-examination after half a year, because the liver tumor is not easy to detect under 1cm. If the liver was examined last year. Everything is normal, maybe 3 months later, I will go to the hospital again and find a 1cm tumor.

Regular physical examinations only ensure that small tumors can be detected early and surgically removed, but it does not mean that last year’s examination was fine, and next year or 3 months later, there will be no changes in the liver. According to the research, if the tumor is 1cm, it will become 1.3cm after 100 days, but some people’s tumors grow very fast, and some people’s tumors can grow to double in size in just a few days. It is recommended that people at high risk of liver cancer should have regular follow-up examinations every 3 months for early detection and treatment.