Significantly Raised Liver Enzymes - Aspartate and Alanine Transferase

[isla2009]

DS aged 5 has had severe eczema forever and nothing seems to help. We had some blood tests done to see if there were any allergies that were causing it and they came back with significantly raised liver enzymes.

Normal range for Aspartate Transferase is 0-37 DS scored 209
Normal range for Alanine Transferase is 10-50 DS scored 259.

Does anyone have any idea what this means? Have tried googling but not having much luck. Obviously will make an appointment with the GP to discuss but until then I'm driving myself mad trying to understand what this could mean...

Any help would be much appreciated

[Willdoitinaminute]

Did your GP carry out the tests?

[Micah]

Is he on any medication?

[Micah]

Oh and raised liver tests aren't normally a huge worry unless they're in the thousands.

[isla2009]

He wasn't on any medication when the blood was taken on Monday - he saw the doctor yesterday for a chesty cough and conjunctivitis and has been prescribed antibiotics. He had the cough on Monday so not sure if being slightly ill could produce these results of if its something more serious?

It wasn't the GP who carried out the blood tests. We saw a doctor in chinese herbal medicine who was recommended to help with the eczema. She's the one who ordered the blood tests. They were taken at The Doctors Laboratory on Wimpole St in London. We saw the Chinese herbal doctor today and she's given us the results and told us we need to see our GP to investigate the liver results as it's not an area she is an expert in. I will try and make an appointment but in the meantime have spent the whole afternoon with Dr Google!

[isla2009]

Sorry Micah cross posted - really? Thank you, that's good to know!

[LatinForTelly]

Hi Isla, my DS had significantly raised transaminases for two periods in his infancy / preschool years. (They were always referred to as ALT and AST but a google suggests these are the same as the two things you list.)

The first time, one was over 1000 and the second around 800. This was when DS was about 18 months. Then he was monitored and they lowered, and they raised again, I think when he was around 4, but not quite as high (600ish and 500ish) from memory. Basically it was the profile of an alcoholic's liver, but without any alcohol!

In short, although he had an ultrasound scan, and a liver biopsy was the next thing on the list, he never appeared clinically unwell. His bloods were monitored and came down slowly each time, over the period of about a year. (He has a metabolic disorder and was entirely tube-fed, so was monitored regularly because of this anyway.)

I hope this reassures you a little. I think you are right to press for an explanation, or even for a referral to a gastro-enterologist (it was my son's gastro who dealt with all this, although he also sees other consultants.)

[isla2009]

Hi Latin

I'm so sorry I totally missed your reply - thank you so much - really appreciate the reassurance.

We still don't have an answer - he has a virus at the moment so the doctors said it could be because of that. When he's over that he'll have another blood test to see if they are still raised and if so, they will investigate.

He's still not over the virus so its a waiting game at the moment.

x

[LatinForTelly]

Oh don't worry!

I'm sorry you still don't have an answer. I remember being very worried about it at the time. DS's gastro did take it seriously, but they just couldn't fathom it.

They were understandably reticent to do something as intrusive as a liver biopsy, but would have if levels had not started to come down.

I remember the gastro being beyond laid back once levels had come down to around 80/90 even though that's double the upper limit of normal.

I hope they come down very soon.