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The term "transaminitis" is used to mean elevated transaminases. Transaminases are
certain liver enzymes, and elevated transaminases, or elevated liver enzymes or transaminitis,
can indicate the presence of liver disease. Liver disease may be mild and asymptomatic
or it may be severe and life-
Enzymes
The liver produces a lot of different enzymes (thousands of them, in fact) that play
important roles in digestion and metabolism, but two of them are particularly important
for diagnostic purposes. These are aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase
(ALT). In most occurrences of liver disease, ALT is more highly elevated than AST.
The reverse is often the case with alcohol-
Causes
Many different conditions can cause transaminitis. Some of these causes are forms
of liver disease, but others are not. Besides liver disease, possible causes of transaminitis
are elevated triglycerides, a condition often accompanying high cholesterol levels.
Some medications can also produce the symptom.
Continued below....
These include some antibiotics, anti-
Transaminase Differential Diagnosis
When a blood test indicates elevated transaminases (transaminitis), further analysis
to determine the ratio of blood AST to blood ALT, as well as a further test for alkaline
phosphatase (ALP), allows "differential diagnosis." It's important to understand
that these are not tests for liver function. Other tests can indicate that, but tests
for blood levels of AST, ALT, and ALP do help detect problems with the liver. Differential
diagnosis can help differentiate among various liver diseases that might be indicated
by the mere fact that transaminases are elevated above normal level.
Treatment
In fact, since transaminitis despite the form of the word isn't a disease, there's
no treatment for it. What it is, however, is a possible indicator of liver disease,
and treatments should certainly be recommended for that.
As transaminitis can indicate
various liver diseases, as well as non-
When the cause of the test results is a prescription
medication, another concern arises. Prescription drugs are used to treat medical
conditions and are not something that can simply be ceased without consequences.
One must weigh the benefits of the medication against any potential damage it may
be causing to the liver, and also consider whether there are effective alternatives
to the medication that could provide the same benefit without causing liver problems.
Often there is no easy or cost-
Statins
Among the medications that can cause elevated liver enzymes, the statin family of
drugs, used to treat high cholesterol, present an especially knotty trade-
In fact, clinical evidence of liver damage resulting from use of statins
is very rare. It appears that while there is some evidence that the drugs can cause
liver damage, the elevation of transaminases is not a secondary effect of liver damage
but arises from another effect of the drugs, probably on liver activity itself. Because
of this, and because high cholesterol is considered a very significant health risk,
the medical community's consensus as of today is that high cholesterol should be
treated aggressively using statins as well as lifestyle methods, and that moderate
amounts of transaminitis -
Transaminitis
| Hepatic Steatosis |
| Alcohol Liver |
| Cirrhosis stages |
| Liver Failure Stages |
| Alk Phos |
| AST |
| Elevated ALT |
| Transaminase |
| SGOT |
| Transaminitis |
| Hemangioma |
| Hepatomegaly |
| Liver Cirrhosis Bible Review |
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