Monday, August 24, 2009

LFT : SGOT vs SGPT, Direct BR vs Indirect BR

SGOT = AST, SGPT = ALT
SGOT is elevated in alcholic hepatitis.

I always get confused between the two. Here's how to remember: When you drink alcOHOL, you get hepatitis and your liver gets HOLes. So there are more HOLEs in SGOT - That's why SGOT is present in mitOchOndria and cytOsOl. SGPT is present only in cytosol.

To remember SGOT = AST and SGPT = ALT, strike out the common letters on both sides. You get O = S and P = L. Now remember "The OS (operting system) of your life gets corrupted with alchol". Remember OS for O=S --> SGOT = AST.

The other confusion is between Direct and Indirect bilirubin. Which is more? The level of Indirect is more - remember the number of letters in 'Indirect' are also more as compared to 'Direct'. Indirect = Unconjugated BR. ( Note that both have prefixes ). Therfore, Direct = Conjugated BR.

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