Liver Levels

[ed_san]

Hello Doctor:
I am a 36 year old male, 5'-9" tall and 178 lbs.
I have been experiencing dry mouth for the last three weeksand decided to get a wellness panel test done.
I just got the results, everything came back normal, the only two flags that it has are the ALT and AST levels.
AST: 67
ALT: 122
I drink socially, weekends only and the tests shwoed that I am negative for all the Hepatitis.
I would like to know how high thos levels are and what do they mean??
Can that be the cause of my dry mouth symptoms?
I didnt drink at all for two weeks and a half prior to taking the test.
Thank you

[mkh9]

Hope you get some good info/answers when you go to the doc.  That is a fairly good increase.
take care,
mkh9

[LivingInHope]

It surely did- happy you have an appointment with your doctor to follow up on these things!

[ed_san]

Thank you for your response,
I do have a follow up appointment, I have not discussed the results with the Doctor but I will next week.
As for the reference interval the results read like this:
AST 67 Reference interval (0-40)
ALT 122 Reference interval (0-55)

I was looking at my last physical results done in January, 2011 and the levels were:
AST 30 Reference 7-36
ALT 41 Reference 4-45

It really went up in 5 months

[mkh9]

Hi and sorry you are having this problem. You said you drink socially on the weekends. Socially can be a binge on the weekend or a glass or two. So if you drink heavily on the weekends this may be your problem. In addition to the info you received in the last post I'll add normal AST=8-20 and normal range for ALT is also 8-20. Yours was high for both. Was I read is similar that high AST can be due to various things:Damage to: Liver, heart, kidney, pancreas, and muscles. And as above certain drugs will increase your values. If you have also been taking lots of Tylenol for  a month or high dose for a couple of weeks you would have elevated liver enzymes too and I'm sure there are some other drugs such as was mentioned (salicylates).
ALT is raised in Mononucleosis, alcoholism, liver damage, kidney infection, chemical pollution, and myocardial infarction.

So, you really need to follow up with your doctor or another doctor that will figure out what is going on. Only you know if you have been drinking too much. If you had mono you would have swollen lymph nodes in your throat area, and a sore throat and very tired. Kidney infection, usually you would have pain in the back plus pain on urination. Of course heart problems can be seen as a heart attack but an EKG would have to be done if they suspect heart problems. The point was brought up about thrist and diabetes. It is a good call and you should have your fasting blood sugar checked too. Thirst, may coincide with dehydration and alcholism or drinking too much too.
hope this helps.

take care,
mkh9

[LivingInHope]

There are no guarantees on the non-professional forums that you'll get a doctor response versus the professional forums.  But I think it was the right step you took in going to a doctor.

I do have an old "A Manual of Laboratory Diagnostic Tests",  Frances Fischbach, 2nd edition.  You said these two items- AST & ALT were flagged, but did not give reference ranges (would you give them, please)?  Now reference ranges can vary, but it would seem from my book and what I see online that both AST and ALT were flagged high.

My book says about increased ALT:

"A. Increased levels are found in
1. Hepatocellular disease (moderate to high increase)
2. Active cirrhosis (mild increase)
3. Metastatic liver tumor (mild increase)
4. Obstructive jaundice/biliary obstruction (mild to moderate increase)
5. Infection or toxic hepatitis
6. Liver congestion
7. Pancreatitis (mild increase)
8. Hepatic injury in myocardial infarction complicated by shock
B. SGOT/SGPT comparison
  1. Although the AST level is always increased in acute myocardial infarction, the ALT level does not always increase proportionately.
  2. The ALT/SGPT is usually increased more than the AST in acute extrahepatic biliary obstruction"
It also states a number of drugs can falsely elevate ALT levels & salicylates (I believe that is aspirin) might make your value increase or decrease, as far as factors that can interfere with the ALT test.
Increased AST has a long list of possible implications listed as well- let me know if you're interested.

Regarding the increase in thirst- did they test you for diabetes also?  With these test results, I hope the doctor office had you set up a follow up appointment to discuss them.  If not, please be pro-active for the sake of your health as the above numbers you posted look like you really need to set up a follow-up... and if the doctor's office where you went hasn't already done that, given your results, may I recommend it be a different doctor, one that is more on top of things and who really cares about the health of their patients?