Liver enzymes

[Guest guest]

Hi, Donna,

My liver enzymes were high when I was diagnosed with Grave's and the first

endo I went to said that because of this, I was a terrible candidate for ATD's.

He went as far as telling me that I could be chancing a liver transplant on

the drugs. I went for a second and third opinion and was told otherwise. The

third endo, who I am still seeing, told me that once treated, they would come

down and they did slowly but surely in about 3 months.

Your high liver enzymes probably have nothing to do with drinking any

everything to do with Grave's. Once that is in check, I'm sure the liver

enzymes

will be as well.

[Guest guest]

Hi Donna,

Based on what you said, I'd imagine your liver enzymes are fine. Worst case

scenario, there'd be slight elevation, and that can be related to

hyperthyroidism.

There's a general rule for statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) which should

be similar to that for ATDs although I haven't seen an ATD rule.

The statin recommendation says enzymes as high as 3 times the high end of the

normal range aren't a contraindication to starting statins. Take care, elaine

[Guest guest]

I have cp and the 25 I was admitted to the hopital because my liver

enzymes were elevated. I have no idea what the cause of it it. The

doctor who admitted me who was on call for my doctor wouldn't give

me any pain medicine becuase she said the pain medicine caused it.

When my doctor came back on monday he gave me dilaudid for pain so I

don't see how he would give me that if it was caused for the

enzymes. I was just wondering if anyone knows the cause. Thanks

[Guest guest]

" " wrote:

> I have cp and the 25 I was admitted to the hopital because my

liver enzymes were elevated. The doctor who admitted me who

was on call for my doctor wouldn't give me any pain medicine

becuase she said the pain medicine caused it.

When my doctor came back on monday he gave me dilaudid for

pain so I don't see how he would give me that if it was caused for

the enzymes. I was just wondering if anyone knows the cause.

,

There are some pain medications containing acetaminaphen

and certain antibiotics that can cause high liver enzymes. There

are many physical reasons for high liver readings, also. What

pain medications or antibiotics had you previously taken, if any?

Dilaudid is a hydrogenated form of morphine, and does not

contain any acetaminaphen, so your doctor was correct in

prescribing it.

As I said, there could be many physical reasons for the high liver

enzyme levels, fatty liver being only one. Is your doctor going to

follow up on this to find out what caused it?

I hope this helps answer your question in some fashion.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and

should not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

[Guest guest]

In addition to cp, I also have autoimmune hepatitis, so my history may be

quite unique. I started back having attacks of acute panc in Jul 02, after

about 18 months of no serious problems. After several months of the doctors

not being able to figure out why my panc enzymes would come down pretty

quickly when I was NPO, but liver enzymes did not, my old GI finally did a

liver biopsy and found out that I have autoimmune hepatitis. I was put on

prednisone in Jan 03 and within 2 1/2 weeks my liver enzymes were near

normal. My old GI then blamed all my pain, nausea, and vomiting on the

liver disease, despite the fact that several episodes included elevated

amylase and lipase. Anyway, finally in Jun 03, I went under the care of a

new GI/hepatologist and he told me that I have both autoimmune hepatitis and

cp. I was having spikes in my liver enzymes when I had episodes of the

lovely severe right upper quadrant pain. The doctors were blaming it all on

my liver and said it couldn't be my panc because my amylase was normal.

They didn't ever check my lipase because the local hospital has to send it

out and it takes two days to get it back. It took going to the ER in the

next town to finally put all the pieces together. My new GI/hep told me

that my liver disease is pretty well under control with the meds and the

spikes in my liver enzymes were being caused by my pancreas. I spent 11

days in the hospital the end of May/beginning of June on major pain meds and

as my pancreas settled down, my liver enzymes came down to normal. I spent

another 4 days in the hospital in mid-august again on major pain meds and

once again as my panc settled down, the liver enzymes returned to normal.

My GI is currently calling my cp idiopathic but he thinks it is caused in

part by my bile not flowing as well as it should. He put me on actigall (to

thin the bile) and panc enzymes as soon as he became my doc in early June.

Overall I have been a lot better since then but I do still have pain,

nausea, and vomiting on a pretty regular basis. Because I have liver

disease, I am not given pain meds with tylenol any more. The doctors are

careful in choosing all my meds since there are so many that are hard on the

liver.

My whole point to this is that according to my GI doc, pancreatitis can

absolutely cause elevated liver enzymes and he feels sure that even though I

have liver disease, many of my episodes of elevated liver enzymes were

caused by my pancreas. For the doctor to automatically assume that pain

meds caused your elevated liver enzymes is ridiculous in my opinion and for

him to refuse to give you pain medicine was downright sadistic! If you just

had a one time episode of elevated liver enzymes, there's probably not a lot

to worry about. However, I would insist that the doctors keep a close watch

on your liver enzymes for a few months. I can tell you about tons of people

who just had elevated liver enzymes off and on and then by the time the

doctors did a liver biopsy, they already had cirrhosis so advanced that they

were put on a transplant list almost immediately. In the words of my

rheumy, my liver enzymes were 'all over the place' for almost a year before

they finally did a liver biopsy. They ranged anywhere from normal once or

twice to over 20 times normal (700+ range). When my GI finally did the

liver biopsy, my 'perfectly healthy' liver (that's what my old GI kept

saying for 4 months after my internal med doc said I needed a liver biopsy)

showed stage 3 fibrosis. Liver damage is graded on a scale of 0 to 4 with 0

being no damage and 4 being cirrhosis. My 'perfectly healthy' liver was

well on its way to cirrhosis. Fortunately, autoimmune hepatitis typically

responds well to treatment, which is steriods and immunosuppressants.

However, without treatment, the 10 year survival rate for autoimmune

hepatitis is only 10%!

Okay, I'll get off my soap box now. By the way, autoimmune hepatitis is

pretty rare - 1 in 100,000 to 150,000 depending on where you read. However,

somebody has to be the 1 and there are lots of other liver diseases that are

not so rare. By the way, I have never been a drinker despite the fact that

I have cp and liver disease!