Alanine aminotransferase

Elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is a common clinical phenomenon. The liver is the body's largest detoxification organ. Whether the organ is normal is very important to the human body. ALT is an important indicator of liver function problems. In common factors, various types of hepatitis can cause ALT to rise, which is caused by liver damage. Some drugs such as anti-tumor drugs and anti-tuberculosis drugs can cause liver damage. Drinking a lot of alcohol and eating certain foods can also cause short-term damage to liver function.

ALT mainly exists in hepatocyte cytoplasm, and its intracellular concentration is 1000-3000 times higher than that in serum. As long as 1% of liver cells are necrotic, serum enzymes can be doubled. Therefore, ALT is recommended by the World Health Organization as the most sensitive detection index for liver function damage. But it is not organ-specific, and many diseases can cause it to increase. Significant increases are seen in acute viral hepatitis, moderate increases are seen in chronic hepatitis, active liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver abscess, myocardial infarction, myocarditis, heart failure, etc. can also be slightly increased. Therefore, the evaluation of elevated ALT should be closely combined with clinical. Some elevated ALT is related to fatty liver and drinking alcohol. There are many commonly used liver protection drugs in clinical practice. However, the therapeutic effects of some drugs can be repeated easily, resulting in some liver diseases that cannot be cured for a long time, and a large number of liver cells are destroyed. How to protect liver cells is the key to protecting liver function.

Alanine aminotransferase is mainly found in liver, heart and skeletal muscle. Injury or necrosis of liver cells or certain tissues will increase the alanine aminotransferase in the blood. There are many clinical diseases that can cause abnormal aminotransferases and must be identified
1. Viral hepatitis This is the most common disease that causes an increase in transaminase. Various types of acute and chronic viral hepatitis can cause an increase in transaminase. 2. A variety of drugs and chemical agents for toxic hepatitis can cause the transaminase to rise, but after stopping the drug, the transaminase can return to normal.
3. Alanine aminotransferase will also increase in large or long-term drinkers.
4. When cirrhosis and liver cancer cirrhosis are active, the transaminase is higher than the normal level and should be actively treated. 5. Biliary tract diseases such as cholecystitis and cholelithiasis usually have fever, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, jaundice, increased blood bilirubin and transaminase.
6. Acute myocardial infarction, myocarditis, and heart failure in heart disease, both alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase are elevated, and patients often have chest pain, palpitations, shortness of breath, and edema. Cardiac examination showed positive signs and abnormal ECG.
7. Some other infectious diseases, such as pneumonia, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, infectious mononucleosis, etc., have the phenomenon of elevated transaminases, but these diseases have typical clinical manifestations, and can use laboratory tests, Clear diagnosis. In addition, acute soft tissue injury and strenuous exercise may also cause a transient increase in transaminase. So you need to go to the hospital to do a more comprehensive inspection to find out the reason and deal with it in time.

The measures taken for the reasons are different. It is recommended that you go to the hospital for a more comprehensive inspection to find out the reasons and deal with them in a timely manner.
Liver function tests require fasting blood, because normal human blood contains a certain amount of large molecules of β and γ globulin, which can be combined with certain chemical reagents to precipitate, while small molecule albumin and α1-globulin, then It can prevent precipitation. Therefore, after the prescribed chemical reagents are added to normal human serum, no precipitation or slight precipitation occurs due to the inhibitory effect of albumin. Due to the decrease of serum albumin and the increase of β and γ globulin in patients with hepatitis, significant precipitation occurs after adding chemical reagents to their serum. After eating, the ingredients in the serum have changed. After adding chemical reagents, even normal human serum will precipitate to varying degrees. Especially when eating high-protein or high-fat foods, precipitation is more obvious. The reported results make it easy for doctors to misdiagnose normal people as hepatitis patients. In order to make the examination results more accurate, it is required that those who test liver function should draw blood on an empty stomach.