TRIP

Blood Test - Liver Function Tests

Patient UK, 2006

The functions of the liver include: storing glycogen (fuel for the body) which is made from sugars; helping to process fats and proteins from digested food; making proteins that are essential for blood to clot (clotting factors); processing many medicines which you may take; helping to remove poisons and toxins from the body.
This is a greenish-yellow fluid that contains bile acids, bile pigments and waste products such as bilirubin.
The bile flows down these ducts into larger and larger ducts, eventually leading to the common bile duct.
After you eat, the gallbladder squeezes bile back into the common bile duct and down into the duodenum (the first part of the gut after the stomach).
As the liver performs it's various functions it makes a number of chemicals that pass into the bloodstream and bile.
A raised level of 'uncongugated' bilirubin occurs when there is excessive breakdown of red blood cells.
As a routine precaution after starting certain medicines to check that they are not causing liver damage as a side-effect.
However, other tests of the liver may also be done to confirm the diagnosis of a particular disorder, and/or to monitor the activity of the disorder and response to treatment.
In certain liver disorders the liver cannot make enough of these proteins and so blood does not clot so well.
(The liver breaks down and clears alcohol from the body and this enzyme is involved in the process.)
Other tests such as liver biopsy, ultrasound scan, other types of scan, etc, may be needed to clarify the cause of a liver disorder, and/or to monitor its progress.