I received my results from my most recent physical today, and looked at a bunch of numbers that I know next to nothing about. No problem; in his write up, my physician described all my tests as normal. And on examination, I see that all of the returned values fall within the normal range.
With one exception. The listed liver tests include:
Bilirubin
Alk. Phos.
SGOT
SGPT
GGT
Total Protein
Albumin
Alll of those fell well within the normal ranges, except for GGT, which had a value of 81 with a listed range of 15-78 U/L. What is that test, and what does that result mean?
It’s used to detect liver and bile duct injury. An elevated range (which is what you have) could mean there’s a problem. However, alcohol, OTC, and prescription drugs can also give you an elevated reading. Do you smoke? Did you drink any alcoholic beverages within 24hrs. before the test?
Just to add that GGT is a liver enzyme, which as x-ray vision noted can be elevated due to a number of causes including
taking certain drugs and alcohol (including alcohol abuse). The liver makes more GGT to help in metabolizing these substances.
If that’s the only abnormality in your liver profile and there’s no reason to suspect a problem otherwise, I doubt you have anything to worry about.
As a side note: Mrs. J. once had a liver profile come back markedly abnormal, with elevations in several enzymes indicating significant liver injury. After semi-panicking about possible causes like hepatitis, we had the tests repeated. All were normal (unknown lab error, apparently). If you or your doc are worried, the lab might still have a blood sample to repeat the test on.
I review labs like that every day. Frankly, if all else are normal, except the GGT is elevated a few points over the ‘normal’ range, I only follow up on it if the patient has significant health problems or risks. Sometimes not even then.
Thanks, y’all. No, I wasn’t worried - just curious because that one alone fell outside the range. My physician would definitely advise me if he had any concers, and he described the results as normal.
Generally, about 5% of the healthy population will fall “out of the normal range” on any lab test. so unless there are other reasons for concern, i wouldn’t worry about that slightly elevated GGT.
I do liver tests everyday. A GGT of 81 would not cause me to blink. GGT can be elevated by taking a single aspirin or a single drink. I get concerned when I see GGTs above 200. An “elevation” of 3 points means you should probably repeat the tes a year or so from now at your next physical.