liver tests Flashcards
- Recognize common liver chemistry tests and their clinical implications when abnormal, including AST and ALT, Alkaline phosphatase, and Bilirubin.
AST: hepatocellular damage. ALT: hepatocellular damage. Bilirubin: cholestasis, impaired conjugation or biliary obstruction. Alkaline phosphatase: cholestasis, infiltrative disease or biliary obstruction.
prothrombin time
•Assesses the extrinsic clotting pathway. When combined with serum albumin can assess synthetic function aka hepatic function.
Causes of Prothrombin time prolongation
hepatocellular dysfunction or Vitamin K deficiency
Non hepatic causes of low albumin levels
poor nutrition, nephrosis, malabsorption, severe illness with catabolism
Non hepatic causes of elevated prothrombin time
malabsorption, genetic causes
compare half lives of albumin and coagulation factors
albumin half life is 19-21 days. Coag factors half lives may be less than a day. These tests can be used to determine acute vs chronic components of hepatic function
Test to assess hepatic dysfunction vs Vit K deficiency with prolonged prothrombin time
Administer subcutaneous vitamin K and assess response. No correction indicates liver dysfunction. Normalization indicates vitamin K deficiency
- Characterize patterns of liver chemistry test abnormalities for hepatocellular and cholestatic liver diseases.
Hepatocellular injury or necrosis: predominantly AST and ALT elevation. Cholestatic pattern: predominantly alk phos elevation. Can also have a mixed pattern which indicates synthetic dysfunction
Function of AST and ALT
Both are aminotransferases which catalyze transfer of aa groups to form hepatic metabolites.
compare location in hepatocyte and organ expression of AST and ALT
AST: cytosol and mitochondria, liver, heart, muscle and blood. ALT: cytosol, liver only
AST:ALT ratio
normally 1 b/c impaired plasma clearance of AST by sinusoidal cells. Alcoholic liver disease is >2 b/c hepatic deficiency of B6 which is cofactor for ALT activity and alcohol induced injury to mitochondria enriched in AST.
hepatic causes of mild (< 5X) AST and ALT elevations
Chronic HBV and HCV, acute viral hepatitis (A-E, EBV, CMV), steatohepatitis, alcohol related liver injury, hemochromatosis, autoimmune hepatitis, alpha1- antitrypsin deficiency, Wilsons dz, celiac dz and cirrhosis
NON hepatic causes of mild (< 5X) AST and ALT elevations
hemolysis, myopathy, thyroid dz, strenous exercise
Causes of severe (>15X) AST and ALT elevations
acute viral hepatitis (A-E, herpes), meds/toxins, ischemic hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, Wilsons dz, acute Budd-Chiari syndrome, hepatic artery ligation or thrombosis
Alkaline phosphatase function
•Hydrolase enzyme responsible for removing phosphate groups from nucleotides, proteins and alkaloids
Tissue location of alk phos
Nearly all tissues: liver (microvilli of bile canaliculus), bone, placenta, intestine.
Causes of elevated alk phos
Cholestatic or infiltrative diseases of liver, Obstruction of biliary system, Bone disease, Pregnancy, renal failure, CHF
List infiltrative dz of liver that cause elevation in alkaline phosphatase
sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, fungal, granulomatous dz, amyloidosis, lymphoma, metastatic malignancy, hepatocellular carcinoma
How do you differentiate hepatobiliary vs nonhepatobiliary origin of elevated alk phos?
- 5’-nucleotidease: Significantly elevated only in liver disease, highest levels in cholestatic diseases. 2. gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT): Not present in bone, Elevated after alcohol consumption and almost all types of liver disease
Bilirubin metabolism
Normal heme degradation product. Requires conjugation (glucuronidation) into water soluble forms before biliary excretion. Heme > heme oxygenase converts to biliverdin in kupffer cells of liver > biliverdin reductase converts to bilirubin > UDP glucuronyl transferase conjugates bilirubin into water soluble form in hepatocytes > bile canaliculus
Indirect vs direct bilirubin
indirect: measures unconjugated bilirubin before entering hepatocyte. Direct: measures conjugated bilirubin that has exited hepatocyte
hemolytic jaundice
overwhelmed conjugation: indirect bilirubin increases
Biliary obstruction- effect on direct and indirect bilirubin
obstruction leads to conjugated hyperbilirubinemia