Advise for my grandson Please

[4729141]

Hi i am new here and hope i can explain myself......My 17yr old grandson went for a full blood count and his ALT came back high....the second the same....he is having a third along with a scan on his liver.....there is no family history of liver problems....he is a good lad...never taken drink drugs or had any sexual partners his ALT is 62...what does that mean? I am beside myself not knowing what this could mean to my Grandson....Please enlighten me x

[AyrshireK]

Hi there, whilst it is scary for you all at this point please don't worry yourself silly until doctors have carried out further tests.

Thankfully his doctors are on the ball here and are ordering futher blood work and a scan after which they should know more about what is going on.

ALT at 62 is not horrendously out of range (ranges do vary from lab to lab/hospital to hospital - for example my husbands lab treats 5-55 u as normal range). Because its been elevated for a period of time it is good that doctors are following it up - there can be a number of reasons for high ALT including short lived viral infections & as it isn't massively high it is unlikely that anything serious is going on just now ................ don't go hunting online as this will take you to sites where they talk of very late stage issues but these would be reflected in ALT readings into the hundreds or even thousands.

It is great that your Grandson is so 'clean living' but there are still liver conditions or bile duct issues that can occur for youngsters & adults which can result from auto-immune conditions and such like. If it is something like that then there will be more tests after the next set to establish what 'if anything' is going on and for many conditions there are treatments that can be put in place. It isn't all doom and gloom.

So, until the next set of tests & results come through please try to remain calm, some liver conditions can be exacerbated by stress so your grandson needs a bit of calm around him too so as not to panic him unnecessarily.

Wishing you all the very best, Katie

[4729141 in reply to AyrshireK]

Thank you Katie.....this came out of the blue following a viral infection.....he is hoping to join the Marines and has no other health issues.....just so scary when its your children / Grandchildren would rather it be me....Thank you once again xx

[AyrshireK in reply to 4729141]

The chances are it is just a blip as a result of the viral infection so hopefully no damage done (especially as he obviously has no other symptoms) and

onwards and upwards to his career in the Marines. Better safe than sorry getting it checked out.

All the best

Katie xx