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Thank you all. Sqad, I've suffered fro really painful bilateral parotitis for around 25 years. I've had ultrasound, CT Scans, Sialography, MRI Scans, blood tests and all tests my ENT specialist has suggested over the period concerned. Stones and tumours have been eliminated from the enquiry in the last year or two. Sometimes, I have been free of the inflammation and pain for periods of up to about nine months but it keeps returning.
I've had cardiac problems for around the same time and one of the symptoms was an enlarged, painful spleen (Portal Hypertension). This time, a haematologist ordered a MRI Scan of the spleen which somehow, inadvertently, showed that I had liver cirrhosis ( a non-alcoholic variant apparently). No treatment was prescribed although they considered a biopsy.
Following my admission to a teaching hospital in recent weeks, the consultant cardiologist there told me that there was a recognisable link between parotitis and cirrhosis. Unfortunately, he was on his ward rounds and I could not question him further.