The liver is a vital organ that plays an essential role in the body. It removes toxins from the blood and stores vitamins and minerals. It also helps digestion by breaking down food into smaller molecules to absorb it into your body. It’s also involved in digestion, blood clotting, and making proteins. Liver function tests (LFTs) determine whether your liver is working correctly.
If something goes awry with the liver (like a disease or injury), it can affect your entire body’s ability to digest food or adequately store fat. Therefore, a liver function test is routinely done for many reasons: Liver function tests may use to monitor or screen for liver damage or disease or to help diagnose a liver condition.
Liver Function Tests Fall into Two Main Categories:
Blood tests and biochemical markers. Blood tests measure the level of certain substances in the blood, usually produced by the liver. Suppose something is wrong with your liver’s ability to make these chemicals.
In that case, it can cause an increase in their levels and lead to abnormal results on these tests (for example, elevated bilirubin). Biochemical marker testing involves measuring enzymes present within your body that play essential roles in metabolizing iron and other nutrients, as well as detoxifying waste products like carbon dioxide (CO2), ammonia (NH3), and urea nitrogen (UN).
Liver Function Tests May Use for Several Reasons.
Detection of Liver Disease:
The first step in diagnosing a disease is determining whether your liver is functioning normally. This means it can produce enough bile acid, which helps you digest fat, or vitamin D, which helps your body absorb calcium from food.
If you have a low level of these substances in your blood system (called serum), it can indicate that there’s something wrong with the functioning of your liver and pancreas—both of which are organs involved in digestion!
Monitoring The Effects Treatment:
Some prescription drugs may cause side effects such as nausea or vomiting if taken too frequently. If taken without an antacid like Tums® between doses, these symptoms become unbearable for patients who suffer from chronic pain. In addition, they often don’t have access to doctors specializing in treating individuals suffering from chronic diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS).
A simple liver function test allows doctors to monitor how well each patient responds positively before prescribing additional medications based on results rather than guesswork alone.
Liver function tests are sometimes performed to monitor or screen for liver damage or disease. In addition, liver function tests are often used as part of a comprehensive metabolic panel when you have a physical exam, especially if you’re 40 or older. They may also be done if your doctor suspects something is wrong with your liver and wants to check it out.
Liver function test results can help determine whether the causes of an abnormal test result were related to diet and exercise habits, such as excessive alcohol consumption (alcoholic fatty liver disease), overeating (diet-induced steatohepatitis), smoking cigarettes (chronic hepatitis C virus infections), heavy drinking sessions followed by days without food (alcoholic cirrhosis).
Conclusion
These tests are often ordered when a patient has symptoms of liver disease or if someone with existing liver disease is monitored for complications. Liver function tests can also use to check the liver’s health in pregnant women, people who drink alcohol heavily, those taking medications that may cause liver damage, and children at risk of inherited diseases of the liver.
With liver tests, you can see if you have too many or not enough enzymes or proteins in your blood. And a liver function test cost might differ based on your chosen clinic. So, research and select the best clinic for live function tests.
