Dr. Pathik Parikh Hepatologist and Liver Transplant Physician

  Alcohol Related Liver Disease – What is new (Part 1) Alcohol is known to be associated with liver disease to everyone. There are lot many misconceptions about liver disease and alcohol. Let us break these misconceptions about alcohol disease. Also, I have tried to include the recent changes in terminology and have included some aspects of management. How big is Alcohol a problem? About 30% males and 5% Indian Females take alcohol. Alcohol consumption is the seventh leading risk factor for both death and the burden of disease and injury. Except for tobacco, alcohol accounts for a higher burden of disease than any other drug.Alcohol use accounts for 6.8% of age-standardized deaths in men and 2.2% in women, with a disproportionate effect on young people. In a multi-center study from India, published 4 years back, off 13014 patients of liver cirrhosis, 2253 had alcohol as their chief risk factor. Almost all patients were male. Does everyone who take alcohol develop liver disease? Nei...

Liver biopsy is a procedure where a small piece of your liver tissue is obtained and sent for examination. Not all patients with liver disease warrant Liver Biopsy. Your Liver Specialist or Hepatologist will look at your disease course – history and clinical examination, blood reports including  Liver Function Tests  and reports for  HepatitisB ,  HepatitisC ,  Wilson’s Disease ,  Autoimmune Hepatitis  and then take a decision on need for  liver biopsy . Why does Hepatologist advice Liver Biopsy? Reason for abnormal liver tests (Diagnose) Determine the stage of your liver disease (Stage) Determine the severity of your liver disease (Grade) Decide on need and success of the treatment (Treatment) If there is any suspected tumour in the liver (HCC Hepatocellular Carcinoma Liver Tumour) Unknown reason of fever Is there different ways to carry out liver biopsy? Most common is via Ultrasound (Sonography) guided biopsy through the skin ...

There is a myth that because alcohol is banned in Gujarat, there is no  liver disease in Gujarat . Though, alcohol is one of the major reasons for liver failure, there are many other diseases which one needs to be aware of. The most common cause of  liver failure in India  is  Hepatitis B . The most common cause of liver cancer is Hepatitis B. Those who were born before 2002 need to check themselves for hepatitis B. vaccination is available and is now a part of national immunization schedule. Hepatitis B has no symptoms and the only way to diagnose is a simple blood test. If you have received blood transfusion in past, you have the risk of being exposed to  Hepatitis C . The diet in Gujarat is full of sugars and oils. With adaption of western sedentary lifestyle, obesity and diabetes is on the rise. With that fatty liver is also on the rise.  Fatty liver  can cause liver damage similar to that caused by alcohol. Fatty liver is worldwide becom...

The answer is yes and no. It indeed is a liver problem and it indicated that there is fat accumulated in your liver. However, it is not just a  liver problem  and it is one of the manifestations of a complete metabolic problem. Liver is a store house. Whatever we eat, the excess amount is converted to fat and is stored in the liver. If on a daily basis, we have a positive balance between calories we eat and calories we burn, the difference is converted to fat and stored in the liver. Over a period of time the fat accumulated to such a great extent that it starts damaging your liver cells and they start dying. This is the time when your liver function tests start becoming abnormal. If no corrective action is taken at that moment, the liver tries healing itself with abnormal fibrosis and eventually it becomes cirrhosis. Once cirrhosis happens, it is irreversible and can then lead to all complications like blood in vomit, blood in stools, abnormal behavior, fluid accumula...

Liver  as you all know it, is not only the second largest organ of the body after skin, but also a major organ for metabolizing. Whatever we eat goes to liver before reaching anywhere else in the body. The liver stores the excess energy as fat and condensed glucose known as glycogen. So whenever we eat excessively, the energy is stored in liver as fat. If we continue to do so for months and years together, the liver starts accumulating fat and enlarges in size. A point comes when liver no longer can take it and starts undergoing destruction. What is Fatty Liver? Whenever the fat accumulation in liver crosses 5% of liver weight it is known as fatty liver. Though in last century alcohol was believed to be the major cause of fatty liver, the diet and lifestyle is rapidly becoming the major cause of fatty liver now. The disease is known as non alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD. Once it starts destroying liver it is called as steatohepatitis or NASH. Who is likely to ha...

Blood in stools is a common symptom. Many of the individuals face it once in a while. But if it is a recurrent symptom, Ulcerative colitis is a  disease  that needs to be ruled out. Intestine is divided into two main parts- small and large. Large intestine is the last one metre of the intestine which helps not only in forming stools but also storing it till the time we evacuate during our routine defecation. What is Ulcerative Colitis? It is a type of disease where the last part of our intestine gets damaged by our own immune cells and is a type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease or in common terms, IBD. The other types of IBD are Crohn’s Disease and Microscopic Colitis. In ulcerative colitis, the lining of the large intestine gets damaged and ulcerated. Once it gets ulcerated it starts oozing blood. Who is likely to have it? Ulcerative colitis is common among young individuals of both the sexes, though, no age is protected from it. The exact cause of ulcerative colitis...