High liver enzyme levels?

Question

My friend is an alcholic and has had some blood tests done.. he was told his liver enzyme count should be 50 but is 3000... can someone please tell me how serious this is and whether there will be anything that can be done. He is currently waiting to get into rehab but there is a long waiting list.. I need to know how serious this is so that I can decide what to do

Thanks x

Answer 1

Tell him to stop drinking if he likes the idea of living.  If his liver enzyme count is that high, then he already has signs of cirrhosis.  The liver enzymes are getting into his blood stream because there is tissue damage in the liver.  He has a choice.  He can keep drinking or face eventual liver failure and death.  He should be keeping a very close eye on his blood work from now on too.

Answer 2

A hepatic function panel really should be interpreted by the patient's physician since it consists of a bunch of strange-sounding acronyms, e.g. ALT, AST, T. Bili, etc, so it's not worthwhile to attempt to evaluate him on this alone.

If your friend is, indeed, an alcoholic but does not pose an imminent threat to him or herself, then unless the patient can be convinced to seek treatment, there is little that you can do.  Short of proper in-patient Rehab, there really is no safe way to keep the patient okay.  Rapid cessation isn't a reasonable approach as it may very well lead to potentially lethal outcomes.  I implore you to seek other venues where the patient may (at his/her discretion) find immediate treatment for this ailment.  If the patient poses an imminent threat to him/herself or others, then all bets are off and a physician is authorized to involuntarily place him into medical custody by force.

I wish you the very best.

Answer 3

Alcoholic hepatitis is quite common, and alcoholism does not protect one from other forms of hepatitis. There really is no way to extrapolate one number (probably aspartate transferase) to the clinical condition, or guess about the short-term prognosis.