Does anyone has normal ALT and AST but have many HCV symptoms?

[heyheyhey0476]

Hi,

I have normal AST adn ALT but have all the hepatitis c symptoms you name it. Is this possible.

Fatigue, brain fog, tiredness, diarrhea, stomach pain, itchiness, tingling sensations etc.....

Can this be possible. I am not doing treatment still.

If i have normal AST and ALT, should I start treatment. What is the deal with this, cause I´ve heard people with normal ALT and AST should not do treatment still.

[FloridaMouse]

I totally agree with Hector on this.  GET A BIOPSY.  My ALT and AST were always normal to just slightly elevated.  I finally did a biopsy in 2006 after having HCV for 23 years.  I truly thought I was fine.  I came back at Stage 3/4.  You cannot depend on LFT's to determine amount of liver damage.

Mouse

[HectorSF]

Have normal AST & ALT?
Absolutely!

I always had normal blood tests for 37 years. Even knowing I had been exposed to Hep B & Hep C. Known as "non-A non-B" to us baby boomers. I thought I had time. Hey, nothing seemed to have changed. I felt good and healthier then ever....

Then went to have a kidney stone procedure and had to see a doctor to go over my current health status. Never meet the guy before. Within 30 seconds, he asks me "What wrong with your blood levels?" Huh? Wha? I didn't know anything was "wrong". Then he says the only time he see levels like this is patients with HIV or cancer. Thanks doc!!! You made my day! Luckily he was WRONG! Needless to say I was flipping out. But it was a Friday and my kidney procedure was scheduled for Tuesday morning. So I said to myself I’d get through this kidney stone thing first, then worry about the "HIV/Cancer thing" afterwards. What else could I do?

Well in a couple of weeks after recovering from the procedure I meet my Gastro. He looks at me. Feels on my left side of chest. Left side? "Hey doc, the liver is on the right". 15 seconds later, he says "you have an enlarged spleen". "Which explains everything". Okay......Is this good news or a death sentance? What he meant was my HCV had taken my liver to Stage 4, cirrhosis and I DIDN'T FEEL ILL AT ALL. This was confirmed by biopsy shortly afterwards... In a way that kidney stone was a blessing in disguise. And that's how I started my journey for the past year. Now I'm on week 10 of tx.

So find out your viral load and genotype. Then get a biopsy. Especially if you are genotype 1 as tx has about a 50% chance of working for genotype 1's and you may want to wait if your liver is still healthy for better more effective treatments.

Best of luck.

Hector

[Marcia2202]

That's weird. Can't you get them to at least tell you your GT?  It's my GP who did all preliminary tests. He's till waiting for the GT results. He'll refer me to a hepatolgist as soon as he has that. Then is when I will start waiting, big time. I think it will take 2 months before I have the biopsy. I wished I could speed the whole thing up... Don't we all... The waiting is unbearable... the not knowing... the speculating. I think I gotta go to sleep ... its 00.20 here.  Night... Marcia

[bandman54]

They won't even tell me my genotype until I go meet with my doctor 2 weeks after the liver biopsy.

Guess they want to talk about it all at once... hope it is not too overwhelming.
ugh.
bandman

[Marcia2202]

Keeping my fingers crossed for you. Haven't gotten that far, yet, still waiting for genotype ...

[Eileen104]

My daughter and I have had normal ast and alt for years.  I still have damage to my liver and have extremely high viral load.  My daughter also has never had elevated ast or alt and she also has damage to her liver.  Do not go by the ast and alt tests.  The only for sure test is liver biopsy.  That will tell how much damage there is.  good luck

[Trinity4]

I think having to treat comes down to the degree of liver damage.  Nothing really to do with viral loads or enzyme numbers.  None of us want to tx, I certainly did not and the last month on tx has been a huge drag.  I am sitting here at work and feel like I could just bust out crying half the time cause I never feel good anymore but with stage 3 liver disease I don't feel like I had any other choice. I knew going into this I was not the best candidate for SVR given geno 1A and my age but as I have said before at least if this fails I'll know I tried everything I could.  Just my thoughts and best to all of you facing this decision.
Trinity

[Jakied]

have you tested pos for hcv?  From your post, I cannot tell.  

[working dog]

i haven't tx yet..my alts and ast are just high of normal..they went down this year...i just woke up from a nap at lunch...fell asleep from 11;30 to 1;00...the fatigue thing is a drag...and i have other sx...but i'm waiting for better tx..this hep is tough when your sx come on..i hope you don't drink at all....i'm g/1a s/1 to 2 g/2...vl was 5.5 a year ago....if you haven't yet get a biopsy..and the achy joints, brain fog..thats part of it...if i feel real good i know it's a matter of time and sx always come back..good luck....billy

[Dora82_05]

My levels were normal for years (25 yrs). This last blood work(Jan08?) it was slightly elevated. So I was referred to a hepatologist. I actually told my GP that I wanted a consult because I read that your blood levels can be normal and still have damage going on. So he decided to refer me. As for symptoms, fatigue and some depression was always there. I started getting the brain fog, aches, loss of appetit, very little nausea (depended on what I ate) about 2 years ago and progressively getting worse. I have g 1B and have a biopsy scheduled this month. The brain fog and fatigue are really getting to me. My opinion, if you have g 1A or B, maybe better results if you treat sooner, since I hear it's one of the hardest to get rid of. I just pray my GP didn't screw me by telling me "it's normal" " we can treat if you want to, but not neccessary yet" and never doing more tests and research into Hep C. GP's are great for colds and that is about it. Do yourself a favor and do your own research and get educated :) and let them know what the next move should be, like a referral to a specialist in Hep C. Good Luck to ya.....

[bandman54]

your welcome!
thanks for watching the video, they are very good.
just waiting to see what the liver biopsy says... keeping fingers crossed!
bandman

[Marcia2202]

Was just watching a video called 'Why I Should get My Hepatitis C Treated Now!  on the site bandman suggested me to check out. The Professor from Mt. Sinai is explaining that there are a lot of people who never get detected, because the ALT AST is normal, so their GP does not refer them to get further tested. It turns out that one can even have fibrosis with normal counts.  Scary, but obviously true. So those scores actually mean nothing at all. Maybe with the exception that when one is on tx, it shows progress??? Only a biopsy can tell how far the damage has been made...

Bandman, thanks for the link, hcvsupport.org

[FlGuy]

Do your symptoms include a confirmed diagnosis of HCV to include geno type and viral load greater than zero?

[bandman54]

oh yeah,  
I feel like my symptons are minimal,... some fatigue, vomited on 2 days seperated by a period of one week, diaria on those days as well.
Slight joint pain in my hip at times.
Always, thought is was just everyday aches and pains, but I guess not.
bandman

[bandman54]

Interesting quesion, as I am pretty much wondering the same thing...
my g.i. is trying to push me very quickly into treatment (even before my my viral load test and liver biopsy, she is talking about treatment, but my ast, alt and bili readings are only slightly elevated.  She told me those numbers mean nothing, but I have 3 sets of readings taking over a period of 2 years and they are consistent.

Should treatment be started if your readings are low and (hopefully)  minimal liver damage?

somebody?
bandman