New and anxious

[Mabbo]

Hi, I’m a little worried at the moment and find it helps to talk... my Bilirubin level is 21, ALT is 52 and AST 26? I am having a repeat blood test on Wednesday to see if any change? Do you think that is high?

[AyrshireK]

Range levels vary from lab to lab so it's hard to say what is high/low. However, those levels look fairly normal. When did you have them done? What makes you think you may have a liver issue?

[Mabbo in reply to AyrshireK]

Hi, thank you for your reply. I had a blood test on Wednesday last week after I have been having all over body itching for a couple of weeks. My ALT of 52 is high as the labs limit is 45 and my bilirubin of 21 is the very top of their limit which is 21. This time last year the results were 44 and 16. I had my gallbladder out at the beginning of the year as I was getting abdominal pain (still am) and they found a 2cm stone?

[Kristian]

Each lab has there own reference range which is why we are encouraged not to share results. However, yours only look to be slightly elevated on the ranges that I normally see.

From what I've read, the usually prompt for further investigation is having results that are roughly 1.5 or 2 times the upper limit of normal on repeated tests. So that should give you a rough steer at least.

Obviously there are exceptions to this and those Liver Function Tests will only tell you if there is something actively going on at the time of the test, or at least in the very near time frame to it.

So, as a rough answer to your question, no I dont personally think those are particularly high. However, it's a good thing that you're having the tests repeated. You obviously had some work done on your gall bladder so it's good just to check there are no further issues with that.