Laboratory Tests - Need help making sense of your test results?

During a regular checkup, or yearly physical, your doctor may request laboratory tests to monitor your health, or perhaps to get a diagnosis.

Laboratory Tests
If you need help making sense of your test results, check out the National Institutes of Health's Web site, where you can find out; why your doctor ordered the test, what it's used for, and what the results may mean.  
Updated this month: Laboratory Tests.

Liver Chemistries Is The New Liver Function Tests

If you're a liver patient, like myself, you might be all about the liver function test, now called "liver chemistries." In 2016 the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) issued new guidelines on the evaluation of abnormal "liver chemistries," and suggested that "liver function tests" be referred to as "liver chemistries" or "liver tests." The reasoning behind the name change is simple "Liver Function Tests" are not true measures of hepatic function.

Liver Function Testing - Oldie But Goodie
An interesting article published in 2010 by Dr. Pullman:
The first thing to know is that what is commonly called liver function testing (LFTs) has little if anything to do with the function of the liver. They are really tests that are clues to liver injury or disorders, but not really liver function. The first two tests are the ALT (Alanine aminotransferase) and AST (Aspartate aminotransferase) were formally called SGPT and SGOT respectively. These are enzymes that normally function inside liver cells primarily, and are present in the blood stream in small quantities. When there is something causing injury to liver cells, these enzymes leak into the bloodstream in large quantities, and elevated serum levels of these enzymes what physicians call hepatocellular injury.

Continue reading article: http://drpullen.com/liverfunctiontests

FYI
Both Fatty liver Disease and Hepatitis C are two liver disorders often first detected through a routine blood test, both may not have any symptoms, talk to your doctor to see if you might be at risk.

Stay happy, stay healthy.

Tina

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