We know that the liver is the "biochemical center" of the human body, and a large number of substances undergo various biochemical reactions in the liver every day. These two enzymes are the most important indicators of liver function, they can reflect whether the liver cells receive damage, whether there is inflammation, necrosis.
High aminotransferases (TTs) are elevated levels of either AST or ALT! There are many reasons why they are elevated, and some of the common ones are as follows.
First, physiological increase. One of the requirements of the physical examination is that you must rest early the night before, not to work late, not strenuous exercise, and not to eat spicy, stimulating and greasy food. Because of these reasons may lead to transaminase transient increase!
Second, liver and gallbladder disease. Transaminases are indeed an indicator of the functional state of liver cells. If the aminotransferase is more than twice the normal value and lasts for more than two weeks or more, then you can basically tell that there is a liver and gallbladder disease occurring. This time to pay attention to check whether there is hepatitis, cholangitis and so on.
Third, cardiac disease. Glutamine aminotransferase is most active in the heart, while alanine aminotransferase is most active in the liver. And when we check liver function we check the peripheral blood and you can't tell which organ source of aminotransferase this is. So, when there's an acute myocardial infarction the glutamic aminotransferase is significantly elevated, and in acute hepatitis the glutamic aminotransferase is significantly elevated!
Fourth, drugs hurt the liver. Is the drug three times poisonous, here the poison often refers to poison the liver. Many drugs have liver toxicity, common anti-tuberculosis drugs, cold and flu drugs, anti-malignant tumor drugs. Therefore, drugs are also one of the common causes of increased transaminases.
When you find the transaminase increased, first you need to clarify the cause! If it is due to late night, exercise or transient alcohol consumption as mentioned above, then the transaminases will recover soon! If it is due to recent medication, then you need to consult your doctor to see if you need to stop the medication. If the increase in aminotransferases is caused by a liver or gallbladder disease or some other disease, then you need to find the primary disease and treat it aggressively!
What does a high aminotransferase reading mean? What do I need to be aware of?
Nowadays, as long as you are hospitalized, you need to check your liver and kidney function, urine and feces routine, blood routine, electrolytes, and so on, which are routinely checked. And in the check of liver function, most of the cases are included transaminase, many people hear the check out transaminase high when I, the inner is more afraid and confused. What exactly is transaminase? What does an elevated aminotransferase mean? These are most people's doubts, in order to relieve you of these confusions, today I will share the knowledge of transaminase.
1. What is transaminase?
In fact, this aminotransferase is a general term, which includes alanine aminotransferase and glutamine aminotransferase, these two enzymes are mainly distributed in the liver.
I'll start with glutamine aminotransferase, which can be found in many organs, such as kidney, heart, pancreas, spleen and so on. But the most abundant is the cell plasma of the liver, and its main function is to participate in the metabolism of proteins, and most of the food we eat is transformed into proteins needed by the body under the action of these enzymes.
Glutamine is also an enzyme found in the liver, and it is important for liver metabolism, but its specificity is not as high as that of glutamine because the organ with the highest levels of this enzyme is the heart, followed by the heart. Glutaminase is mainly found in the mitochondria of the liver, whereas AST is mainly found in the cytoplasm of the liver. AST is more sensitive than AST because it is elevated when the liver is mildly damaged, whereas AST is not necessarily elevated.
2. What does an elevated aminotransferase mean?
The normal values of AAT and AAT are 5-40 U/L and 8-40 U/L respectively. Generally, there is no need to worry too much if the value is not more than 3 times of the normal value, because there are many factors that can cause elevation of aminotransferases.
Elevated aminotransferases mean that the liver is damaged, the higher the degree of damage the higher the aminotransferases, mild elevated aminotransferases are seen in the late night, strenuous exercise; drinking alcohol, oral medications such as sleeping pills or birth control pills, overwork and so on.
Moderate and severe elevation of transaminases is mainly seen in serious injury to the liver, such as trauma, acute and chronic viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, myocardial infarction, pulmonary infarction and so on.
It is important to note here that when the liver is badly damaged, the transaminase in our blood is not necessarily elevated very much, because then the function of the liver declines, the ability to synthesize this enzyme decreases, and naturally the level of transaminase is not too high.
3. What should I do if I have elevated transaminases?
If the aminotransferase level is not more than 3 times the normal value, you can temporarily observe whether it can return to normal through life interventions. During this period, you should try to do regular work and rest, pay attention to rest, don't drink alcohol, and don't do strenuous exercise, etc., and observe to see if you can't return to normal, and then you need to find out more about the specific causes.
Nowadays, there are a lot of patients with chronic diseases who need to take oral medications for a long time, such as hypoglycemic drugs, antihypertensive drugs, aspirin and statin drugs, if the transaminase is more than 3 times of the normal value, you can pause or reduce the use of, to be normalized by the liver function to resume taking or resume the original dose.
The last summary: elevated aminotransferase means liver damage, need to regularly review aminotransferase, try to do not stay up late, do not drink, do not overwork, not strenuous exercise, if the aminotransferase or continue to rise more than 3 times the need for further identification of the cause of the disease, in order to take the necessary therapeutic measures.
Nowadays, it's not uncommon for people to take a blood test to check their liver function, and many hospitalized patients will basically take a blood test to check their liver function to assess their liver function, and there is one of them, "transaminase".
What is transaminase?
There are two general functioning aminotransferases: alanine aminotransferase, also known as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase, also known as glutamate aminotransferase (AST). Aspartate transaminase (AST) is a mitochondrial enzyme found in large quantities in the heart, liver, bones, muscles and kidneys. When these organs are damaged, the damaged cells release AST into the bloodstream and AST is elevated in the serum. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is an enzyme found in the cytoplasm of the liver cells, and its elevation is more specific than ALT for the detection of liver damage.
What does a high "aminotransferase" mean?
A high transaminase level is often a reflection of liver damage, which means that there may be a number of diseases that damage the liver, such as hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, cirrhosis, liver stasis, drug-induced liver damage, and so on. Of course, non-hepatic factors such as skeletal muscle injury, cardiac muscle injury, strenuous exercise, heat stroke, etc. can also lead to elevated aminotransferases, but on the whole, the main factors causing elevated aminotransferases are of hepatic origin!
What should I pay attention to when I have a high transaminase?
1. It is important to go to the hospital to get a clear picture of the cause of the high aminotransferases, and to treat the primary disease as soon as possible to avoid further damage to the liver. In addition, we should pay attention to the regular review of liver function to understand the transaminase regression.
2. Avoid alcohol: Alcohol can damage liver cells, which can cause transaminases to rise.
3. Avoid liver-damaging drugs: Some Chinese herbal medicines and western medicines that have clear liver-damaging side effects should be avoided as much as possible.
4. Regular work schedules and avoiding late nights.
5. Maintain a calm state of mind and avoid anger or depression.
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Transaminase is an indicator of liver function, the general physical examination report will check the liver function, sometimes the physical examination report form will appear transaminase elevated, so this transaminase elevated means what? What are the possible causes? What do you need to pay attention to? I'm going to analyze it for you.
What does an elevated transaminase mean?
Transaminase mainly includes alanine transaminase (ALT) and glutamine transaminase (AST), the normal value are in 0-40, because the transaminase is a sensitive indicator, after exercise, after eating, after drinking alcohol will cause fluctuations in the transaminase, therefore, the transaminase is mildly elevated may be physiological, and if the magnitude of the elevation of the large to be caused by the rest, it may be caused by liver and gallbladder disease, and so on.
What are the causes of elevated transaminases?
As mentioned above, factors such as fatigue, exercise, oily diet, pregnancy, etc. can cause physiologic transaminase elevation, so these conditions should be avoided during the physical examination. Pathologic diseases that cause elevated transaminases mainly include viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, drug-induced hepatitis, cholecystitis, and myocarditis. Pathologic elevations of aminotransferases are generally greater, usually greater than 120.
What should I be aware of with elevated aminotransferases?
For the first discovery of transaminase elevation, need to identify the cause of the disease, first of all, should be retested once to verify that, if there is indeed a transaminase elevation should be carried out to rule out the above pathologic diseases, and at the same time to carry out the cause of the treatment, such as viral hepatitis antiviral treatment, drug hepatitis to stop using liver damage drugs, can be appropriate to use some liver-protecting drugs, and regular recheck of the indicators of liver function.
These days I received a patient surnamed Deng in the inpatient department of abdominal pain, mainly in the epigastric fossa and the right epigastric pain is mainly, no fever, no chills, the pain radiates to the right waist, abdominal pain is more obvious after eating. It is clear that this is an abdominal pain caused by a digestive disease.
The patient did ultrasound, gastroscopy, electrocardiogram in the outpatient clinic, and ruled out serious heart attack, cholecystitis, gastric ulcer, etc. Combined with his medical history, he was hospitalized and checked liver function and found that the "transaminase" was obviously elevated, and the CT saw gallbladder neck stones, so it must have been a biliary colic caused by the gallbladder neck stones, secondary to liver function impairment. The patient's abdominal pain was quickly relieved with medication.
There are several important indicators in the physical examination report card of liver function, which are: alanine aminotransferase, glutamine aminotransferase, albumin, and alpha-fetoprotein.
The normal values of ALT and AST are about 40 U/L. ALT is the main substance in the liver cells, while AST is found more in the muscles; if they are elevated, it is considered to be combined with damage to the corresponding organs.
First, the alanine aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase slightly elevated (less than three times the normal value): can be seen after drinking alcohol, after a lot of exercise, sleep deprivation; can also be seen in chronic viral hepatitis, fatty liver, some inflammatory diseases can also lead to liver function abnormalities, such as cholecystitis, biliary cholangitis, pancreatitis and so on.
Secondly, moderate elevation of alanine aminotransferase and glutamine aminotransferase (more than 3 times the normal value, less than 8 times): it can be seen in severe biliary tract infection, biliary obstruction, severe viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, and so on.
Third, the alanine aminotransferase, glutamic oxalate aminotransferase light obvious elevation (more than 10 times): seen in some serious acute hepatitis, bee sting after allergic reaction, drug liver damage, and so on.
Fourth, alanine aminotransferase is not obviously elevated, azalea aminotransferase is obviously elevated: can be seen in some muscle trauma or myocardial injury disease.
The elevation of ALT, if combined with the following abnormal results or symptoms, need to pay attention to further examination to exclude serious liver disease
1, ALT elevation + albumin reduction: consider chronic liver injury, to exclude the possibility of cirrhosis;
2, ALT elevation + alpha-fetoprotein is strong positive: consider the combination of hepatocellular carcinoma may be;
3, albumin elevation + alpha-fetoprotein strong positive: consider the possibility of liver cancer;
3, alanine aminotransferase elevation + bleeding gums, dark color, bloody nevus, etc.: to exclude the possibility of cirrhosis
4, ......
liver good or bad assessment, do liver function test is not enough, clinically encountered a lot of cirrhosis of the patient, the liver function test is normal, but ultrasound found that the whole liver
Therefore, when the transaminase is found to be elevated, excluding the behavior of drinking and strenuous exercise before the examination, it must be ruled out that there is no hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, as well as to do liver ultrasound and CT to confirm that there is no abnormality in the structure of the liver.
What does a high transaminase mean in a medical report?
Transaminases are primarily one of the indicators used to evaluate and monitor liver cell damage.
Don't be afraid of seeing high transaminases and worrying about liver disease or other illnesses, why? If you have stayed up late, exercised strenuously, overworked, or eaten too much fat and greasy food before the medical checkup, you may have a high transaminase even if you don't have a medical condition.
In addition, if you drink alcohol, take sedative hypnotic drugs, analgesic anti-inflammatory drugs, contraceptive drugs, etc. before the medical examination will also lead to high transaminase, not necessarily the disease caused by transaminase elevation.
It is important to note that even if the transaminases are within the normal range, it does not necessarily mean that there is no disease, especially when there is a lot of necrosis of the liver cells which are incapable of producing transaminases, and the transaminases may not be elevated.
What diseases are associated with elevated transaminases?
1, liver disease: acute and chronic viral hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, drug-induced hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, cirrhosis, biliary stasis inside and outside the liver.
2, non-hepatic lesions: acute myocardial infarction, acute pulmonary infarction, acute pancreatic infarction, infectious mononucleosis, various causes of shock, septicemia.
(This content is for reference only.)
When liver function tests are performed, usually only alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and azelaic aminotransferase (AST) are tested. When liver cells are damaged, the aminotransferases are released into the bloodstream, raising serum transaminases, and serum ALT doubles in 1% of damaged liver cells.
Transaminases are also widely found in tissues such as the heart, kidneys, skeletal muscle, pancreas, lungs, and red blood cells, and abnormalities in these areas can cause elevated transaminases.
The common causes of aminotransferase elevation:
1, viral hepatitis, which is the most common disease causing aminotransferase elevation, all kinds of acute and chronic viral hepatitis, aminotransferase will be significantly higher.
2, alcoholism, a large number or long-term drinkers can occur alcoholic hepatitis, fatty liver and alcoholic cirrhosis, patients are easy to elevate transaminases.
3, bile duct disease, cholecystitis, cholelithiasis, acute attack, often fever, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, jaundice, blood bilirubin and transaminases increased.
4, infectious diseases, pneumonia, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, infectious mononucleosis, can cause transaminase elevation.
5, drug damage, taking erythromycin, tetracycline, sleeping pills, antipyretics, contraceptives, and half-summer, betel nut, qingdai and other traditional Chinese medicines can also cause transaminase elevation.
6, fatigue or eat greasy food , after strenuous exercise, too tired or recently eat too greasy food, can also cause transaminases temporarily high.
The liver is a relatively "silent" organ, when found abnormal liver function should go to the hospital in time to avoid delayed treatment.
The aminotransferase test includes alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST), which are abbreviated as ALT and AST, respectively.
These two tests can be used to detect liver damage, but they are different types of elevations, and different magnitudes of elevations, as well as different etiologies and degrees of liver damage. What should we pay attention to if our aminotransferases are elevated? Next, MedicalXin will analyze it for you.
ALT and AST are found in different parts of the liver cells, the former mainly in the cytoplasm of liver cells and the latter mainly in the mitochondria of liver cells. When the liver suffers mild to moderate damage, or viral hepatitis, such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C, etc., ALT located in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes will leak out into the blood, and transaminase abnormalities, but at this time, the magnitude of the AST elevation is not large; when the liver suffers severe damage, or long-term large amount of alcohol, metabolism abnormality, or pharmacological liver injury, located in the mitochondria of the AST will be a large number of leakage to the blood, and the magnitude of the increase is often greater than the ALT. It should be noted that whether it is viral hepatitis or liver injury caused by other factors such as alcohol, it may progress to cirrhosis or even liver cancer, and the increase of AST in patients with cirrhosis and liver cancer is often greater than that of ALT. Therefore, it can be seen that there are many complicated causes of transaminase elevation, and it is not possible to identify the specific cause of the disease by transaminase, whether it is mainly due to the elevation of ALT or AST, therefore, we need to pay attention to the fact that it is not possible to identify the specific cause of the disease by transaminase. Therefore, we need to pay attention to:
(1) the role of aminotransferase is to suggest that our liver has been abnormal, the specific cause of the clear, need to rely on other auxiliary tests to further clarify, liver ultrasound or CT can be used as a primary screening, found that there is an unknown mass, feasible ultrasonography of the liver or enhancement of CT, magnetic *** vibration examination, can be combined with the alpha-fetoprotein screening for hepatocellular carcinoma; consider viral hepatitis, then should be hepatitis, and the liver is the most important factor in the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma, the liver is the most important factor in the detection of liver cancer. When viral hepatitis is considered, hepatitis virus antigen and antibody testing should be performed.
(2) The normal upper limit of aminotransferase is not more than 40, and the upper limit is 45-50 in some hospitals, depending on the laboratory test; when aminotransferase is elevated to 80 and above, it is abnormal liver function, and it is recommended to search for the specific cause of the disease; when aminotransferase is elevated to 120 and above, the use of medicines that may damage the liver should be discontinued, such as statin drugs for the prevention of myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction.
(3) The greater the increase in aminotransferase, the more likely to cause us to be vigilant, but when the aminotransferase is normal, liver function is not necessarily normal, such as some cirrhosis, severe hepatitis, aminotransferase can be located in the normal range, and some patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, aminotransferase may be located in the normal range, so aminotransferase is not used as an indicator of the severity of the disease.
In conclusion, the elevated transaminases should be further examined to find out the cause of the liver function abnormality; the elevated transaminases indicate that there are abnormalities in the liver, while the normal transaminases cannot exclude liver diseases, so the transaminases can not be used as an indicator to determine the severity of the disease.
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Note: The content of this article is intended only as a health science, not as a medical advice or opinion, and does not have the condition of medical guidance.
The transaminases in the medical report should refer to the two indicators in the liver function test: alanine aminotransferase and glutamic oxalate aminotransferase;
They are in fact a class of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of amino acids between amino acids and keto acids, which are mainly found in the liver cells of animals, but of course there are small amounts of these enzymes present in other organs of the body, such as the heart, the brain, the kidneys and so on.
When the liver cells are damaged, a large number of transaminases are found in the liver cells.
When liver cells are damaged, a large amount of aminotransferases will be released into the bloodstream, leading to a substantial increase in the serum aminotransferase content of the patient, so when the physical examination report of the value of these two higher than normal, you should first consider whether the liver has been damaged, such as inflammation or severe fatty liver, etc., so aminotransferase is usually taken as a "barometer" of the liver's health. "
Transferases are often used as a barometer of liver health.
A variety of bad habits in daily life can lead to elevated aminotransferases, such as alcoholism, late nights, overwork, drug abuse, overeating, and so on, so that in order to protect the liver, it is necessary to minimize the occurrence of the above situations; of course, the most important thing is the prevention of the disease, especially viral hepatitis, such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C, etc.;
Also, it is precisely because there are so many factors that can trigger liver injury, that it is necessary to prevent the liver from being damaged. Because there are so many complex factors that can trigger liver injury, the clinical treatment of this kind of disease is also very special, in addition to the necessary diagnostic and treatment measures, it is more necessary to cooperate with the lifestyle habits, such as light diet, such as proper exercise, such as good quality of sleep, etc. In short, if your transaminases are abnormal, it is recommended that you consult a doctor as soon as possible, so that he can make the best intervention to promote the liver's health. In short, if you have an abnormal transaminase level, it is recommended that you seek medical attention as soon as possible so that your doctor can determine the best way to intervene to restore your liver to health.
First, the conclusion: elevated aminotransferases are often indicative of liver damage, and if they are elevated more than three times the baseline value, it's important to consider liver lesions and progressive damage to liver cells. After that, it is necessary to pay attention to the basis of further examination as soon as possible, and eliminate all liver injury behavior.
Transaminases are the key to liver function
The liver is the largest digestive gland in the human body and is responsible for storing glycogen and regulating the metabolism of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. At the same time, the liver is also the body's synthesis of bile, urea, coagulation factors of the place, but also on the body of toxic substances, waste, "harmless" processing. As you can see, the liver is busy doing many jobs. Therefore, when the body load increases, metabolism or drink, take too much medicine, liver cells are often "overburdened", damage.
When the liver is damaged, the most responsive biochemical indicators are often referred to as aminotransferases, which include alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST).
Normally, both of these enzymes are found mainly in liver cells, although they are also found in cardiomyocytes, kidney cells, and so on, but they don't usually wander out. However, when the liver cells are damaged, these transaminases lose their residence and flow into the bloodstream along with the cellular fluid, and at this time, if you go to the hospital to check the blood biochemical indexes, which is reflected in the results of the AST and ALT increased to different degrees. Therefore, the clinical often take the transaminase as the wind vane of the liver function, often through the blood test to understand the operation of the situation.
However, as mentioned above, aminotransferases do not work exclusively within the liver cells, so they can be elevated in physiological states, such as strenuous exercise or female physiology, or in acute intoxication, myocarditis, or when drinking large amounts of alcohol, so it is important to make a simple judgment based on the actual condition of the liver before considering liver disease as well.
A word of caution here, if there is serious damage to the liver, such as advanced liver cancer, the transaminases will not be elevated instead - you can understand that the cells normally capable of damaging and releasing the transaminases are almost gone, so naturally, the transaminase indicators in the blood will not be elevated.
What should I do if my transaminases are elevated?
If the aminotransferase level is elevated nearly or more than three times the normal value, and other conditions that can cause elevated aminotransferase have been ruled out, then it is important to consider liver damage, to do further tests, and to stop liver damage behaviors.
1. Abdominal ultrasound. Abdominal ultrasound is the first choice for initial screening of hepatobiliary diseases because it is inexpensive, easy to check, and has no side effects, so it can be checked with confidence. After the abnormal elevation of aminotransferases, we first need to carry out an initial screening examination of the liver imaging, thus determining whether there is cirrhosis and other pathological changes.
2. Viral hepatitis examination. Viral hepatitis represented by hepatitis A, hepatitis B in the progression or in the middle and late stages will cause some damage to the liver, when the condition worsens, the transaminase will be abnormally high due to the serious damage to the liver. Therefore, in addition to ultrasound examination, viral hepatitis should also be excluded. Once the diagnosis of viral hepatitis, should be timely medical treatment, before the condition continues to deteriorate to control the viral replication, and still be able to achieve a clinical cure.
3. Other liver tests, such as CT, MRI or related enhancement tests. When abdominal ultrasound reveals lesions that are insufficient to determine the nature of the disease, advanced imaging is needed to assist in the diagnosis.
4. Stop all behaviors that harm the liver. There are four known behaviors that hurt the liver: (1) drinking a lot of alcohol for a long time; (2) staying up late for a long time with irregular work and rest; (3) overeating and eating a high-fat diet; and (4) taking medications that hurt the liver for a long time, such as anti-tuberculosis treatments, chemotherapy, and some glucose-lowering medications. All of these should be eliminated when the transaminase is abnormally high, and about the medication need to be taken according to the doctor's guidance.
Summary
In summary, transaminase is a weathervane of liver function, and when liver function declines and liver cells are damaged, there is often a considerable level of transaminase elevation. The first thing we should do is to check with our doctors to find out the cause of the problem. At the same time, we should also stop the behavior of liver damage, quit drinking, regular diet and work and rest, according to the doctor's advice before the next step in the treatment of liver damage to stop taking drugs.
It is worth emphasizing that our aminotransferases may increase in physiological conditions, but if they are not elevated for a long time, or if they reach a certain level (more than 3 times), we don't need to be overly concerned.