Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Hepatitis C and Symptoms
Infection with hepatitis C may cause symptoms right away, not for years, or sometimes not at all. With the acute form of the disease, symptoms such as fatigue, nausea, and dark urine typically show up within six months. About one-fourth of patients with acute hepatitis C recover completely with treatment. But according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the other estimated 75 percent of these patients will progress eventually to the long-term, or chronic, form of the disease, with detectable HCV in their blood.Chronic hepatitis C, however, varies widely in its severity and outcome. It can lie dormant for 10 years or more before symptoms appear. Some patients will have no symptoms of liver damage, and their liver enzymes will stay at normal levels (elevated enzymes are one indication of liver disease). A liver biopsy, in which the doctor removes a tiny piece of liver with a needle, may show some degree of chronic hepatitis, but it may be mild.Other patients, however, will have severe hepatitis C, with detectable HCV in their blood, liver enzymes elevated as much as 20 times more than normal, and a prognosis of ultimately developing cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease. Another group of patients falls somewhere in the middle, with few or no symptoms, mild- to-moderate elevation of liver enzymes, but with an uncertain prognosis. According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, at least 20 percent of chronic hepatitis C patients develop cirrhosis, but this process can take 10 to 20 years from the onset of infection. As many as 5 percent of chronic patients, after 20 to 40 years, develop liver cancer. Other studies show that those with cirrhosis develop liver cancer within 17 years.
Patients with no symptoms sometimes learn they have the disease when a routine physical or blood donation shows elevated levels of liver enzymes, which can indicate hepatitis C, as well as other liver disorders.
Other patients, however, have symptoms that prompt them to seek medical attention, including yellowish eyes or skin (jaundice)
fatigue, or an extreme feeling of being tired all the time
pain or tenderness in the right upper quadrant of the body
persistent nausea or pains in the stomach
lingering fever
loss of appetite
diarrhea
dark yellow urine or light-colored stools
If you have any of these symptoms, see a doctor right away.
Patients with no symptoms sometimes learn they have the disease when a routine physical or blood donation shows elevated levels of liver enzymes, which can indicate hepatitis C, as well as other liver disorders.
Other patients, however, have symptoms that prompt them to seek medical attention, including yellowish eyes or skin (jaundice)
fatigue, or an extreme feeling of being tired all the time
pain or tenderness in the right upper quadrant of the body
persistent nausea or pains in the stomach
lingering fever
loss of appetite
diarrhea
dark yellow urine or light-colored stools
If you have any of these symptoms, see a doctor right away.
# posted by Joyfulstill @ 1:52 PM 
