Liver Blood Test
Medical Author: Siamak Nabili, MD, MPH
Medical Editor: William C. Shiel, Jr., MD, FACP, FACR
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Liver...The Largest Gland in the Body!
Medical Author: Leslie J. Schoenfield, M.D., Ph.D.
Medical Editor: Jay W. Marks, M.D.
The liver is the largest solid organ in the body. I think a lot of people
probably know that. But they may not know that it is also the largest gland in
the body. You see, the liver is also considered a gland because, among its
various functions, it makes and secretes bile. (Just for your reference, the
stomach and intestine are large hollow organs. Glands are organs or parts of
organs that make and secrete substances. And bile is a fluid that both aids in
digestion and transports fats as well as waste products into the intestine.)
Actually, there are all sorts of glands in the body that make and secrete
substances, including the pancreas (digestive enzymes), thyroid and other
endocrine glands (hormones), gastric glands in the stomach (acid), and lymph
glands or nodes (lymph). The liver is even larger, I think, than most mammary
glands (milk).
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Introduction to liver blood test
An initial step in detecting liver damage is a simple blood test to determine the presence of certain liver enzymes in the blood. Under normal circumstances, these enzymes reside within the cells of the liver. But when the liver is injured for any reason, these enzymes are spilled into the blood stream. Enzymes are proteins that are present throughout the body, each with a unique function. Enzymes help to speed up (catalyze) routine and necessary chemical reactions in the body.
Among the most sensitive and widely used of these liver enzymes are the aminotransferases. They include aspartate aminotransferase (AST or SGOT) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT or SGPT). These enzymes are normally contained within liver cells. If the liver is injured, the liver cells spill the enzymes into blood, raising the enzyme levels in the blood and signaling the liver damage.
What are the aminotransferases?The aminotransferases catalyze chemical reactions in the cells in which an amino group (amino acids are building blocks of proteins) is transferred from a donor molecule to a recipient molecule. Hence, the names "aminotransferases."
Medical terms can sometimes be confusing, as is the case
with these enzymes.
- Another name for aminotransferase is
transaminase.
- The enzyme aspartate aminotransferase (AST) is also known as serum
glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (SGOT); and
- alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is also known as
serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGPT).
To put matters
briefly, AST = SGOT and ALT = SGPT.
Normally, where are the aminotransferases?AST (SGOT) is normally found in a diversity of tissues
including liver, heart, muscle, kidney, and brain. It is
released into serum when any one of these tissues is
damaged. For example, its level in serum rises with
heart
attacks and with muscle disorders. It is therefore, not a
highly specific indicator of liver injury.
ALT (SGPT) is, by contrast, normally found largely in
the liver. This is not to say that it is exclusively
located in liver, but that is where it is most concentrated.
It is released into the bloodstream as the result of liver
injury. It therefore serves as a fairly specific indicator
of liver status.
Next: What are normal levels of AST and ALT? »
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Liver Blood Tests
Hepatitis B »
What is hepatitis?
The term 'hepatitis' simply means
inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis may be
caused by a virus or a toxin such as alcohol. Other viruses that can cause
injury to liver cells include the hepatitis A and
hepatitis C viruses. These
viruses are not related to each other or to hepatitis B virus and differ in
their structure, the ways they are spread among individuals, the severity of
symptoms they can cause, the way they are treated, and the outcome of the
infection.
What is the scope of the problem?
Hepatitis B is an infection of the liver caused by the
hepatitis B virus (HBV). It is estimated that 350 million individuals worldwide
are infected with the virus, which causes 620,000 deaths worldwide each year.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), approximately 46,000 new cases of hepatitis B
occurred in the United States in 2006.
In the United States, rates of new infection were highest
...
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