Liver abnormalties after being GF??....

[momma3love]

I noticed another topic down below about liver disease. Great links Al. But I am not sure wether my doctor should be passing my recent bout of liver abnormalties off on celiac. I have been GF since November 2004. My liver enzymes were always normal before going GF. Recently I had some severe muscle spasms, so bad I couldn't swallow or breathe real well. Anyway my tummy was real sore so the doc ran some blood tests. Turned out my liver was inflamed. Had an AST of 170, normal is below 35. So all hepatitis was negative. Ultrasound showed enlarged spleen and inflamed liver. Mono came back negative. And liver was back to normal in 4 days. Doctor said liver abnormalty was prolly from celiac but had no idea why my spleen was enlarged. So I am wondering if liver abnormalty occurs after being GF? And if I should worry about it getting worse or not? Thanks for any input!
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Hugs and healing thoughts to all,
Carrie

[Lacey]

I was just diagnosed with Celiac a month ago and they also discovered a liver cyst. They are sending me for additional blood work and an Upper GI and small bowel series. I have only been on the GF diet for a little over 3 weeks so I don't believe there is a link but once I get my results back, I will let you know the outcome and share it with you.
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Lacey

[aklap]

Hi Carrie,

Sorry I don't really have an answer for you. It's odd that the levels went up AFTER being GF. I hope things get a back to normal for you!

I did look around at the AST test:

http://www.meritcare.com/hwdb/showTopic.asp?pd_hwid=hw20334
http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/ast/test.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7665816&dopt=Abstract

Liver abnormalities associated with celiac sprue. How common are they, what is their significance, and what do we do about them?

Dickey W, McMillan SA, Collins JS, Watson RG, McLoughlin JC, Love AH.

Department of Medicine, Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

We prospectively measured serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP), aspartate and alanine transaminase (AST/ALT), and tested sera for antinuclear, smooth-muscle, and antimitochondrial antibodies (ANA, SMA, AMA) in our patients with celiac sprue to determine the prevalence of associated liver abnormalities and its relevance to clinical management. Of 129 patients, ALP was the only elevated enzyme in 12 (9%) and in most cases was not thought to reflect significant liver disease. Seventeen (13%) had elevated AST and/or ALT with normal ALP. Levels normalized in 15 patients after dietary gluten exclusion and remained elevated in 2 noncompliers. Two patients (2%) with elevated AST, ALT, and ALP underwent further investigation: one had negative autoantibodies, liver biopsy, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiography and the other had ANA-positive chronic active hepatitis; enzymes in both cases improved with a gluten-free diet. There was no significant association between elevated AST/ALT and positive ANA/SMA; no patient had AMA. Abnormalities in liver enzymes are common in celiac sprue, but usually respond to dietary gluten exclusion. We propose that there is no need for invasive liver investigation in these patients unless there is more specific evidence of primary liver disease or failure of dietary response.

PMID: 7665816 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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Al

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Mother Teresa

[momma3love]

Thanks, for all the info. I did a lot of looking too and could find no reason as to why my liver enzymes went up. I am just hoping right now it doesnt happen again.

Lacey, I would very much appreciate knowing anything you find out. And I hope that you are better soon as well.

Thanks.
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Hugs and healing thoughts to all,
Carrie