What causes increase in Serum ALT?
It also referred to as Glutamate Oxaloacetate Transaminase (GOT)
Myocardial infarction
An important cause of elevated AST activity is myocardial infarction, i.e. destruction of an area of heart muscle because its blood supply has been cut off due to a blood clot in a coronary artery. The enzyme level rises soon after the coronary vessel becomes blocked, reaches its highest value 24–48 hours after the infarct and returns to normal usually within 3–5 days. In general, the more extensive the infarct, the higher the AST peak level.
Other causes of raised AST levels
Because AST is widely distributed in body tissues, many other diseases involving cellular injury may be accompanied by increases in AST levels:
– Severe bacterial infections, – -Malaria,pneumonia
– Infectious mononucleosis, Pulmonary infarcts, and tumours.
AST activity is also increased in some muscle disorders and following surgery, injury or blood transfusion.
ALT and AST enzymes are artefactually increased when haemolysis is present or if the blood
has been stored without separation of the serum or
plasma.
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