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Home > Archive > Hepatitis disease > October 2006 > Newly diagnosed...
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Newly diagnosed...
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| amzolt 2006-10-19, 4:27 pm |
| I'm a 60-year-old, caucasian male who just got diagnosed on Aug. 25th
(I live in the U.S.A.
So far, I know my AST was (on occasions 22 days apart) 24 & 27 and my
ALT was 20 and 34; I showed Reactive for Hep-C serum and, because of
that, had viral load tested (3,269,796 copies/ml) and HCV IU of 268,807
IU/ml.
The only indicator I can't find anything about is the "HCV IU"; what
does that mean?
I understand the rest of the factors:
Basically liver seemingly o.k., virus present.
Oh, I'm Genotype 1a.
I have about four months to wait yet till I could get treatment (to
"stabilize" myself--I'm being treated for depression and I'm going into
Recovery) but even though I've done quite a bit of research, I don't
really know which way to go...
The Doctor said I might live out the viruses deadliness or, maybe,
not...
I'm resistant to treatment...
I haven't yet looked closely at "alternative" treatments...
I'm assuming (because the Doc said I'd need more tests before
treatment) they'll do a biopsy but haven't asked yet...
Any and all comments/advice welcome!!!
~ Alex
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| greyhackles 2006-10-19, 4:27 pm |
| On 19 Oct 2006 09:21:07 -0700, "amzolt" <amzolt@gmail.com> wrote:
>I'm a 60-year-old, caucasian male who just got diagnosed on Aug. 25th
>(I live in the U.S.A.
>So far, I know my AST was (on occasions 22 days apart) 24 & 27 and my
>ALT was 20 and 34; I showed Reactive for Hep-C serum and, because of
>that, had viral load tested (3,269,796 copies/ml) and HCV IU of 268,807
>IU/ml.
>The only indicator I can't find anything about is the "HCV IU"; what
>does that mean?
>I understand the rest of the factors:
>Basically liver seemingly o.k., virus present.
>Oh, I'm Genotype 1a.
>I have about four months to wait yet till I could get treatment (to
>"stabilize" myself--I'm being treated for depression and I'm going into
>Recovery) but even though I've done quite a bit of research, I don't
>really know which way to go...
>The Doctor said I might live out the viruses deadliness or, maybe,
>not...
>I'm resistant to treatment...
>I haven't yet looked closely at "alternative" treatments...
>I'm assuming (because the Doc said I'd need more tests before
>treatment) they'll do a biopsy but haven't asked yet...
>Any and all comments/advice welcome!!!
>
>~ Alex
You likely had two different "viral load" tests done, one for its
"qualitative" - or more sensitive - ability, the other for its "quantitative"
ability - less sensitive but able to quantize higher viral concentrations. And
different tests express results differently, some use "viral copies", the
others use the somewhat nebulous "International Units" (aka IU), which was
intended to normalize the test values.
While your LFTs look excellent, unfortunately they do not always correlate
with liver health. The extent of damage may correlate with how long you've
been infected. A biopsy is needed to determine staging, though there are blood
test algorithms that are getting closer in accuracy in predicting staging.
Finally, imho, there are no reputable "alternate treatments" to the current
standard of care. The choices are Pegylated-IFN and Ribavirin, or quackery...
Cheers
/greyhackles
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| burkegilman@moxmail.net 2006-10-20, 9:29 pm |
|
amzolt wrote:
> I'm a 60-year-old, caucasian male who just got diagnosed on Aug. 25th
> (I live in the U.S.A.
> So far, I know my AST was (on occasions 22 days apart) 24 & 27 and my
> ALT was 20 and 34; I showed Reactive for Hep-C serum and, because of
> that, had viral load tested (3,269,796 copies/ml) and HCV IU of 268,807
> IU/ml.
> The only indicator I can't find anything about is the "HCV IU"; what
> does that mean?
> I understand the rest of the factors:
> Basically liver seemingly o.k., virus present.
> Oh, I'm Genotype 1a.
> I have about four months to wait yet till I could get treatment (to
> "stabilize" myself--I'm being treated for depression and I'm going into
> Recovery) but even though I've done quite a bit of research, I don't
> really know which way to go...
> The Doctor said I might live out the viruses deadliness or, maybe,
> not...
> I'm resistant to treatment...
> I haven't yet looked closely at "alternative" treatments...
> I'm assuming (because the Doc said I'd need more tests before
> treatment) they'll do a biopsy but haven't asked yet...
> Any and all comments/advice welcome!!!
>
> ~ Alex
what gray and elmo said -bg
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| amzolt 2006-10-20, 9:29 pm |
| greyhackles wrote:
> You likely had two different "viral load" tests done,
> While your LFTs look excellent, unfortunately they do not always correlate
> with liver health.
> Finally, imho, there are no reputable "alternate treatments"
Thanks for the info. !!!!
~ Alex
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| amzolt 2006-10-20, 9:29 pm |
| elmoemerson@webtv.net wrote:
> A liver biopsy...should be done at the earliest....
> Ask your gastro to schedule one now
Thanks for the input.
I've seen that Hep C is somehow "related" to gastro but for the life of
me I don't know why...
I think I just have a "regular" doc.
Why a "gastro"???
~ Alex
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| greyhackles 2006-10-20, 9:29 pm |
| On 20 Oct 2006 16:29:32 -0700, "amzolt" <amzolt@gmail.com> wrote:
>elmoemerson@webtv.net wrote:
>
>Thanks for the input.
>I've seen that Hep C is somehow "related" to gastro but for the life of
>me I don't know why...
>I think I just have a "regular" doc.
>Why a "gastro"???
>
>~ Alex
Short of a hepatologist, gastros (should) know more about liver function than
a General Practitioner (aka "regular doc"). I was treated by a gastro,
successfully (though there's a whole long story about that ;-)
Don't let this thing linger. HCV typically gets harder to cure with time...
Cheers - and good luck.
/greyhackles
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