Cirrhosis - Diagnosis

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The appearance of the fluid is helpful in determining problems:

• A cloudy fluid plus a high white blood cell count means an infection is present.
• Bloody fluid suggests the presence of a tumor.

Screening for Liver Cancer. Patients with cirrhosis are usually screened for liver cancer using ultrasound and tests for a substance called alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). It is not known whether such screening has much impact on survival, because it is not very sensitive and has a high rate of false positives (suggesting the presence of cancer when it is not actually present). Screening is not necessary in patients without cirrhosis.

Review Date: 08/18/2006
Reviewed By: Harvey Simon, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital.