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However, very high elevations of the transaminases suggests severe liver damage, such as viral hepatitis, liver injury from lack of blood flow, or injury from drugs or toxins. Most disease processes cause ALT to rise higher than AST; AST levels double or triple that of ALT are consistent with alcoholic liver disease. [citation needed]
[11] [12] [13] Levels in the third trimester can be as much as 2-fold greater than in non-pregnant women. [11] As a result, ALP is not a reliable marker of hepatic function in pregnant women. [11] In contrast to ALP, levels of ALT, AST, GGT, and lactate dehydrogenase are only slightly changed or largely unchanged during pregnancy. [11]
Alanine transaminase (ALT), also known as alanine aminotransferase (ALT or ALAT), formerly serum glutamate-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) or serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (SGPT), is a transaminase enzyme (EC 2.6.1.2) that was first characterized in the mid-1950s by Arthur Karmen and colleagues. [1]
Aspartate transaminase (AST) or aspartate aminotransferase, also known as AspAT/ASAT/AAT or (serum) glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT, SGOT), is a pyridoxal phosphate (PLP)-dependent transaminase enzyme (EC 2.6.1.1) that was first described by Arthur Karmen and colleagues in 1954.
The proportion of AST to ALT in hepatocytes is about 2.5:1, but because AST is removed from serum by the liver sinusoidal cells twice as quickly (serum half-life t 1/2 = 18 hr) compared to ALT (t 1/2 = 36 hr), so the resulting serum levels of AST and ALT are about equal in healthy individuals, resulting in a normal AST/ALT ratio around 1.
FibroTest, known as FibroSure in the US, is a biomarker test that uses the results of six blood serum tests to generate a score that is correlated with the degree of liver damage in people with a variety of liver diseases. FibroTest has the same prognostic value as a liver biopsy.
The transaminase enzymes are important in the production of various amino acids, and measuring the concentrations of various transaminases in the blood is important in the diagnosing and tracking many diseases. [citation needed] For example, the presence of elevated transaminases can be an indicator of
Reference ranges (reference intervals) for blood tests are sets of values used by a health professional to interpret a set of medical test results from blood samples. Reference ranges for blood tests are studied within the field of clinical chemistry (also known as "clinical biochemistry", "chemical pathology" or "pure blood chemistry"), the ...