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PATIENT INFORMATION

CLA: LIVER PANEL

LIVER FUNCTION

The human liver, located in the upper, mainly right side of the abdomen, is an amazing organ with multiple functions. It manufactures many of the chemicals needed to maintain, build or rebuild our bodies. It breaks down and removes many of the breakdown products of our metabolism and bodily tissues and detoxifies drugs, alcohol and other chemicals it identifies as foreign. It makes bile, which is important in several bodily functions, including nutrient and vitamin absorption in the intestine. And it has the ability to regrow much of itself.

The liver has a complex blood circulation, receiving blood from arteries and also from veins, which have passed through the intestine. Because it receives this drainage blood from the intestine, anything that can make the intestines or other abdominal organs sick can also involve the liver. Cancer developing elsewhere in the abdomen commonly extends to the liver and cancer occasionally originates in the liver.

Viral infections are common in the liver, particularly with the hepatitis viruses A, B, C, D, and E, and the herpes-like virus that causes Infectious Mononucleosis. Because the liver is so “connected” metabolically and through its detoxification role with the rest of the body, other infections and diseases can stress the liver or involve it secondarily. 

Because the liver is so capable of healing itself, some of which it does with scar tissue, this healing process can become a disease in its own right and is generally termed cirrhosis.  This scar tissue distorts the shape of the liver, the liver cells themselves, and the critically important channels that carry blood, bile and other fluids through its substance.

LIVER PANEL

Included in this collection of tests are measurements of blood concentrations of liver cell enzymes (ALT and AST), the bile duct enzyme alkaline phosphatase, the protein albumin and the total of the proteins, and several forms of bilirubin (most of which comes from the normal aging and breakdown of red blood cells). ALT and AST are enzymes that function inside the liver cells.  If the cells are sick, they release these chemicals into the blood stream. Measuring the liver cells’ ability to produce proteins (especially albumin) helps in assessing this productive function.  Bilirubin is a chemical that is produced elsewhere in the body. The liver cells normally remove bilirubin from the blood and convert it into other chemical forms for excretion in the bile, so measuring bilirubin in its various forms tells us much about the health of liver cells, as well as telling us about other problems in the blood. If the bile duct is inflamed or if gallstones are lodged inside, its cells will release the enzyme alkaline phosphatase.

TEST RESULTS

If any of the above chemical measurements are out of their reference ranges (the ranges within which most health peoples’ results fall), you should review these findings with a physician.

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