The normal function of the liver is to clear toxins, process drugs, make glucose and provide amino acids and other building blocks for the body. When toxins or disease affect the hepatocytes or liver cells, the damaged cells send enzymes into the blood that can be measured. Elevated liver enzymes signal a damaged or sick liver. AST or aspartate transaminase, ALT or alanine transaminase, and GGT or gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase are blood tests that can evaluate liver health.
Hepatitis
A viral disease such as hepatitis causes inflammation of hepatocytes. Food and water contaminated by fecal contact causes hepatitis A. Hepatitis B is transmitted via sexual contact or exposure to contaminated body fluids. Hepatitis C is predominantly spread in the drug abuse culture through the sharing of needles. A pregnant woman can transmit hepatitis C to her unborn child. Rarely is hepatitis C contracted through sexual contact. Hepatitis C is the most serious of the viral hepatitis diseases. Liver enzymes can be very high in patients with hepatitis.
Alcoholism
Cirrhosis and elevated liver enzymes are caused by alcohol abuse. Cirrhosis is the fourth leading cause of death in middle-aged Americans, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Alcoholic hepatitis causes an inflammatory response in the liver cells and is the precursor to cirrhosis. A patient with alcoholic hepatitis may experience nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, fever and abdominal pain or tenderness. Jaundice and mental confusion are indicators of severe disease. Because women process alcohol slower than men, they are at higher risk of toxicity.
Liver Cancer
According to MayoClinic.com, primary liver cancer is rare in the United States. Cancer in the liver is usually spread from another organ and considered a metastatic cancer. Often metastases spread from lung, breast or colon cancer. Rates of primary liver cancer are increasing though, secondary to the increasing rates of hepatitis C. Elevated liver enzymes are one indication that the liver is cancerous. Liver cancer is staged in four stages. In stage I the cancer is a single tumor and confined to the liver; in stage II the cancer has invaded the blood vessels or there are multiple small tumors in the liver; in stage III the cancer has grown quite large or invaded surrounding structures; and in stage IV the cancer has metastasized.
