What do the biopsy results mean?
A specially trained doctor, a pathologist, will examine the liver tissue obtained during your biopsy. Pathologists look for many things when they examine liver biopsies. First they put small bits of the liver tissue onto glass slides and stain the slides with a couple of different stains. Different stains are used to look for different things. An “H and E” stain is used to look for inflammation. A “trichrome” stain is used to look for fibrosis (scarring). Other stains look for iron or different components of the liver tissue. If you have hepatitis B, a stain will probably be used to look for the number of cells infected with the virus. This is not possible with hepatitis C. Inflammation The liver is a homogenous organ, that is, similar throughout. It is interwoven with tiny veins, arteries, and bile ducts that thread throughout the organ. It may help you to imagine the liver as a large fine-celled sponge. There are areas where these vessels are located, and areas where there are lots o
