Multiple Serum Enzyme Analyses in Chronic Alcoholics

Abstract

Abstract. Multiple serum enzyme analyses in 100 chronic alcoholics with a history of heavy drinking revealed that most serum enzyme activities were increased in some of these patients. Increased serum creatine kinase activity, characteristic of muscle injury, was found in 43 patients. Since cardiac damage could be excluded by other enzyme tests, skeletal muscle damage seems to be common in alcoholic patients. Elevated serum ornithine carbamoyl transferase (OCT), which is specific for liver damage, was found in 56 patients. Serum GOT, commonly used for detection of liver damage, seems in alcoholics to be partly released from skeletal muscles and should thus be replaced by the more specific OCT, for which there is a simple method. In alcoholics the increased serum activity of the intramitochondrial enzyme, glutamate dehydrogenase, suggests a rather severe liver damage in nearly half of the patients. Serum guanine deaminase (guanase) was pathological less often than the other “liver enzymes”. Heavy increased values were encountered often in serum γ‐glutamyltranspeptidase but leucine aminopeptidase and alkaline phosphatase were less often elevated.

Marked elevation of serum mitochondrion‐derived markers in mild models of non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis in rats

“…NASH is defined as a disease which has a hepatic lesion similar to that of alcoholic liver injury but without any significant alcohol intake 33 . The superiority of mitochondrion‐derived enzymes as a marker for alcohol‐induced liver injury has been reported so far 34,35 . Further, OCT and GLDH also elevated markedly in the rat model of alcohol‐induced liver injury, whereas the other markers did not (Murayama H., unpubl.…”

“…33 The superiority of mitochondrion-derived enzymes as a marker for alcohol-induced liver injury has been reported so far. 34,35 Further, OCT and GLDH also elevated markedly in the rat model of alcohol-induced liver injury, whereas the other markers did not (Murayama H., unpubl. data, 2008).…”

Liver Enzymes in Alcohol‐discordant Twins

“…administered to apparently healthy men, produced a significant rise in S-ASAT for a few days after its intake. In another study, Konttinen et al (7) found that S-ASAT was abnormal in alcoholics more often than the other "liver enzymes". As increased serum creatine kinase activity was found among 43% of the patients, it was concluded that S-ASAT was released to some extent from heart or skeletal muscles.…”

Amylase, Hepatic Enzymes and Bilirubin in Serum of Chronic Alcoholics

“…had been found to increase the serum activity of aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT, GOT) on the following day, with a second peak 8 days after the intake (2). The same applies in alcohol addicts of varying severity (1, 16,24). The elevation of S-ASAT activity is frequently more pronounced than that of alanine aminotransferase (ALAT, GPT).…”