BIOCHEMICAL LABORATORY TESTS IN VIRAL HEPATITIS AND OTHER HEPATIC DISEASES. EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP

The differential diagnosis between viral hepatitis and other liver diseases (particularly obstructive jaundice) is often difficult on purely clinical grounds. Damage to the liver causes changes in the pattern of the serum enzymes and this has led to the development in recent years of a number of enzyme tests. The authors have amassed evidence to show that the most useful of these is determination of the levels of serum glutamic oxalacetic and serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (SGOT and SGPT), coupled with calculation of the SGOT/SGPT ratio. It is characteristic of viral hepatitis that both levels are greatly increased, but the SGOT/SGPT ratio, normally greater than one, falls considerably below his figure. In a few cases of obstructive jaundice, the serum transaminase picture may initially resemble that in viral hepatitis, but the differential diagnosis can be established by repeating the determinations at intervals. Other enzyme tests, such as determination of alkaline phosphatase and leucylaminopeptidase, may be used to confirm the biliary obstruction. Flocculation tests and electrophoretic determination of the plasma protein picture, while of limited value in the diagnosis of acute viral hepatitis, are useful in conjunction with the serum transaminase test for assessing the activity of the disease and any tendency to progress towards “active” chronic hepatitis or post-hepatic cirrhosis.