General Q and A Forum - Hepatitis C (Hep-C), Scleroderma, or Lupus? What's my diagno

General Forum Topics > General Q and A Forum > Hepatitis C (Hep-C), Scleroderma, or Lupus? What's my diagno

Hepatitis can lead to serious liver damage. We cover basics about liver anatomy and define hepatitis here. Plus info on the different types of hepatitis....

Q: Hepatitis C (Hep-C), Scleroderma, or Lupus? What's my diagno

asked by: DoctorQuestion on April 26th, 2007

I was diagonosed with systemic lupus and hep c last june. almost a year now. because of liver damage dr's are scared to treat the lupus and some say that the lupus is keeping the hep c virus so active in my liver - like out of this world active. liver biopsy shows significant scaring and dr said maybe a transplant down the road may be necissary. my problem is this. my doctors can't make a firm decision on the lupus, ana is positive, but not enough, joint paint, fatigue, etc is all symptoms of both lupus and hep so no one of my doctors is willing to make definite diagnosis, which wouldn't be terrible except no one of them no how to treat me! In the meantime I can't work, I'm depressed and another symptom that seems to bother me the most is the shortness of breath - sever. CAT scans show alot of scaring which is untreatable or the way it was explained, nothing will make it better. What do I do? In the meantime I've been turned down by SS/Disability. My condns keeps getting worse

Replies(2)

Dr. Nikola Gjuzelov , MD

replied on May 9th, 2007

General Q&A Answer A2684

Hepatitis C is not easily diagnosed because of its atypical symptoms. On the other hand, Hep-C can be easily proven : one only need look for anti-HCV antibodies or viral DNA in the blood. An infection with the Hepatitis C-virus (HCV) can be overcome with full recovery in 30% of all cases. The other 70% of most cases develop chronic hepatitis with an unfortuntate final prognosis: liver cirrhosis or cancer.
SLE (systemic lupus erithematosus) is not that easily detected or diagnostically proven. Lupus is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that attacks almost all the body's organs. There are several diagnostic criteria ,both clinical and laboratorial, that are used for diagnosing lupus. In some [atypical] cases, lupus is difficult to prove. Lupus can also damage the liver but not as severe as during Hepatitis C.
Scleroderma is also a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease with an unknown etiology, or cause. Some clinical and laboratory diagnostic criteria for scleroderma exist, but scleroderma is harder diagnose than lupus. Sometimes even a skin biopsy is requested to confirm scleroderma.
You can consult a rheumatologist for an expert opinion.

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