Blood test done after taking pneumonia vaccine. What is the cause for elevated level?
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Hi-I had a flu/pneumonia vaccine then some blood work immediately after results came back with high ALT-146-, AST 72- and ALKP -138. Repeated test 5 days latter now ALT 123-AST-65 and ALKP 153 pluse a GGT of 224.
I don't drink/smoke so could the vaccine have caused the elevated level? Also I had one of my 5 or so drinks a year the night before my followup test (17hrs before) on New Years eve. Could that have affected the GGT count?
I don't drink/smoke so could the vaccine have caused the elevated level? Also I had one of my 5 or so drinks a year the night before my followup test (17hrs before) on New Years eve. Could that have affected the GGT count?
Posted Sun, 27 Jan 2013
in X-ray, Lab tests and Scans
Answered by Dr. Sujoy Khan 5 hours later
Hello,
Welcome to Healthcare Magic and thank you for writing to us.
Gamma GT (GGT) is a very sensitive liver enzyme test and elevated levels (I am not sure what the high level cut off value was from your lab) is usually secondary to ethanol (alcohol) intake, and the effect on the GGT lasts about a week.
However, the trend of liver function test results is more important. As you can see, the ALT, AST shows a downward trend (the high cut off in most labs in 40 iu/L). The alkaline phosphatase cut off is 125, so the results are not very abnormal. The flu vaccine can upset the liver function tests to a mild degree, as was seen in the patients given the nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains), then it is best to wait for 4 weeks before getting the tests repeated.They should have returned to normal.
I hope this was useful.
Best Wishes.
Welcome to Healthcare Magic and thank you for writing to us.
Gamma GT (GGT) is a very sensitive liver enzyme test and elevated levels (I am not sure what the high level cut off value was from your lab) is usually secondary to ethanol (alcohol) intake, and the effect on the GGT lasts about a week.
However, the trend of liver function test results is more important. As you can see, the ALT, AST shows a downward trend (the high cut off in most labs in 40 iu/L). The alkaline phosphatase cut off is 125, so the results are not very abnormal. The flu vaccine can upset the liver function tests to a mild degree, as was seen in the patients given the nausea, vomiting, abdominal pains), then it is best to wait for 4 weeks before getting the tests repeated.They should have returned to normal.
I hope this was useful.
Best Wishes.
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