pancrease & liver question

October 14, 2004

Hi,

Can recurring AP attacks cause problems with the liver? Went for my

annual checkup with regular doc this week. Lab work showed LFT's

were increased from last year. They were slightly elevated last

year, this year it's up more...she said read was 53. She's

scheduled an abdominal ultrasound to check liver, and is running

more blood tests. I've been having an average of one to three acute

attacks over the past 6 months, which I've just controlled with pain

and nausea meds, and rest. I'm inclined to think that the pancreas

being aggravated on a frequent basis may be causing the increase in

LFT's.

Thank you,

Charmaine

October 15, 2004

Hi Charmaine,

From my experience with elevated LFTs is that when the

pancreas is inflammed it can cause obstruction in the common

bile duct and cause some of your LFTs to become abnormal. It

depends on which ones are off and how high they are elevated.

In addition, if your attacks are being caused by an obstruction of

the sphincter of Oddi (by SOD or a gallstone) this can cause

elevations of LFTs.

In addition, some people are just normally elevated due to

genetic, weight, medication and other issues. You mentioned a

53 but did not indicate which test this was. If it was AST, ALT,

LDH or GGT I would say that it is only slightly elevated. The rule

of thumb is that elevations lower than twice normal are not too

big of a worry. Those that are over 2 times to lets say 10 times

are something to check up on and those that are 10 time and

more elevated is a cause for alarm - possible viral hepatitis or

chemical toxicity. However, the whole patient scenario has to be

taken into consideration too and if a small elevation is seen

along with other signs and symptoms, then even these will be

looked at more closely.

Hope this helps.

Laurie

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