Scanner spots silent killer
A portable suitcase sized scanner is being used to check the condition of patients’ livers and spot signs of liver damage.
Jayshri Shah, hepatology lead for the trust, describes liver disease as the ‘silent killer’ with patients showing no symptoms until the disease has reached an advanced stage.
The fibroscan helps detect early signs of disease offering same day results compared to the traditional ultrasound elastography which takes eight weeks from referral to results.
As a result, the hepatology (liver) service has now hired two fibroscans and trained its own staff saving time and money as the equipment doesn’t require a radiologist to operate it.
Dr Jayshri Shah said: "The portable fibroscan helps provide a one-stop liver clinic service for various liver conditions such as Hepatitis B, and metabolic steatotic liver disease.”
Patients can see the results immediately with the new service seeing up to 40 patients a week.
The trust-wide service was launched earlier this year and, to date, has completed more than 120 scans.
It is one of a raft of improvements to the service which had previously struggled after many of its senior clinicians left for new jobs or retired.