Brief Answer:
There are several possibilities to look into, Need more information.

Detailed Answer:
Hello there, Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic. My name is Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj and I will be happy to help you make sense of these readings. Once you understand what these numbers tell you, you and your sister will be well suited to make good decisions to improve her health.

First let me start by restating the liver Function test results as you have typed them, this will help us see them in a structured manner and it will help me reconfirm with you that these numbers are correct.

From what I have understood, your sister, is a patient suffering from what I assume to be Type 2 Diabetes. She has been suffering for at least 5 years and she is currently on diabetic medication.

Before going any further, I would request that you give me a few more details.
1) Her Height and Weight currently.
2) Which medications she is on and how often does she take them?
3) Does she suffer from any other ailments / diseases?

Now, these are the test results you have given me:

Test Old Results (28/6/14) New Results
ALT 115 336
AST 117 379
HDL (Cholesterol) 28 36

Firstly, I must say that they are incomplete? Normally a Liver Function Test (LFT) has other tests done in the same battery.. there should be bilirubin tests done as well as other enzymes like GGT. Secondly the HDL cholesterol is only one small part of the total cholesterol panel. Could you give me the rest of those values?

Now, from what I can see here, her liver enzymes (AST & ALT) are mildly elevated, this to me shows that your her liver has been stressed. That stress could have come in a number of forms. For instance, gall stones could impact the gall bladder and raise her enzymes... but the other bilirubin values would be elevated as well.

On the other hand, an infection like Hepatitis A could raise just the enzymes alone. She would have symptoms like fever and abdominal pain. though, since you have not reported anything like that, I would doubt this though.

One very commonly seen cause for these readings is due to medication. There are certain medications used by diabetics.. like Metformin... which can cause these mild elevations in the liver enzyme profile. They have to be monitored closely. If they get too high, then the Metformin has to be stopped. I do not know if your sister is on Metformin or not, am just give you the possibilities right now.

So go over this information with her and see if you can gather in the information I have requested. With that in hand, I will be able to give you more specific advice in this situation.

I look forward to your reply,

Vinay

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Brief Answer:
Pain and fever point to hepatitis

Detailed Answer:
Hello, thanks for coming back and giving me this info. The information you have given me makes me think that Hepatitis is a possibility. Really though, any infection, even a urinary tract infection will cause some very low level increase in enzymes as seen here.

This has to be confirmed with blood work and ultrasound scanning of the abdomen to look at the liver directly. Secondly, the medications she is on can raise enzymes very slightly.

I'm sure, now that the pain and fever have stopped, the LFT's will begin to trend back to normal. I would suggest you repeat them in 3 months. My expectation is that the enzymes should be fairly normal.

So, a doctors checkup with an u;trasound would be a good idea now, repeat LFTs in 3 months

Vinay

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