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lipitor causing HCV??

My father is 51 years old now and in August 2008 had a heart attack,the doctor advised him to use lipitor,lowplat.mepresor and loprine, his ALT and AST count in november 2008 was 30 and 22 respectively, by the use of lipitor his ALT  ans AST count raised to 2246 and 1280  ... clearly above normal... doctor advised him t leave the use of lipitor. my question t you is ... by leaving lipitor will the count decrease?? or what should be done?? and is it possible that he gets infected with HCV by the use of lipitor, is it possible? how far has his liver been damaged??
waiting for your answer :(((( m really worried!! ..thank you in advance.
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362971 tn?1201987034
   Did the Dr do any other blood work like Hepatitis A or B. Lipitor has been known to raise Liver enzymes. It is a side effect for some people. It cannot cause Hepatitis C.

  You Dr needs to do more evaluating.

Bobby
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Avatar universal
Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver. Hepatitis can be caused by many things such as hepatitis A, B or C. It can also be caused by drugs or other toxins as well as alcohol. Your mother's hepatitis is caused by taking lipitor, a pill. It is not a virus and has nothing to do with blood to blood contact.

I hope this helps you to understand. Her liver will likely go back to normal as soon as the lipitor is out of her body.
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Avatar universal
Thank you for all your replies :) i just came back from the doctor he also diagnosed it as acute hepatitis and gave Hepa - Merz syrup and ran a few more tests.than he will make a proper treatment plan.But what could be the cause?, there has not been any sort of blood t blood contact that we know of.How far has the liver been damaged? is it serious?
once again thank u every1 :)
Helpful - 0
96938 tn?1189799858
A definition may be helpful.  'Hepatitis' is smply an inflamation of the liver and can be cause by a few things.  The more common causes that you will read on a forum like this is 'inflamation' caused by viruses like Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C virus. So, you can have 'hepatitis' withou a viral infection.
Helpful - 0
87972 tn?1322661239
Hi,

There are no doctors here; only patients with HCV.

Lipitor can aggravate liver conditions, I believe, but won’t *cause* viral hepatitis. Do you know when your father contracted HCV? His liver enzymes were very high at 2246/1280; these numbers are more consistent with acute infection, implying that he might have been recently infected.

I hope that eliminating the Lipitor helps your father’s condition, but it won’t resolve his virus, unfortunately.

Has his doctor discussed HCV treatment with him yet? This would involve the use of interferon and ribavirin.

Good luck to you both—

Bill
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
is it possible that he gets infected with HCV by the use of lipitor - no.

Statin drugs like Lipitor can cause an elevation of liver enzymes in some patients and that may well me what's happening with your Father. If Lipitor is the cause then I would think that the amount of damage would be related to the length of time he was taking Lipitor. Generally patients who are prescribed a statin drug are tested a few weeks after starting to look for liver enzyme elevations so hopefully this was detected early.
Mike
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Impossible lipitor can cause liver enzymes to increase. HCV is spread via blood to blood contact only ie. via transfusion, IV drug abuse and in the case of Viet Nam vets jet guns used for innoculation other factors may be involved I would suggest further liver tests to rule out other liver disorders. HCV can be diagnosed very easy via a blood test.
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