The old saying is that nothing is as important as your health. That still holds true today, but with the cost of health care spiralling out of control, more and more people are concerned about the affordability and necessity of a variety of medical procedure. More and more people worry about whether or not a test, medication or procedure is really necessary - or if you are just lining some rich pharmaceutical company's CEO's already healthy wallet. One of such procedures with concerns are liver function tests.
You might be surprised to find that there are a number of liver function tests and not all of them measure the functioning of the liver, exactly. They are useful at discovering liver damage and disease, but how useful?
First of all, the main liver function tests may be done for a variety of reasons. In addition to testing for damage and disease, they are also vital for monitoring current disease fighting medication and procedures. This is vital as liver treatment is expensive and understanding the extent or lack of improvement gives liver function tests a crucial role. But what if you have no diagnosed liver diseases or damages? Are liver function tests appropriate to detect such ailments?
Liver disease and damage usually carries with it a variety of other symptoms and consequences that are found before any of the liver function tests are employed. For instance, blood work is usually used to examine liver function and liver function tests are usually only a secondary examination into what the root of the problem might be.
In fact, liver function tests are conducted by drawing blood. The blood is simply analyzed differently with an emphasis on the absence, scarcity, or abundance of a variety of enzymes which might indicate faults or malfunctioning in the liver. That said, there are no risks or side effects to any of the liver function tests, apart from very mild soreness at the site of withdrawal - usually the arm. Lab results are usually available within a few hours or days.
Liver function tests are primarily engaged for those already with liver damage or, once preliminary data points to liver disease and damage. As such, it is unnecessary to have unprompted liver function tests. As the costs of health care skyrocket, it is more important than ever to have as much information as possible, and further investigation into liver function tests will only serve you well in the future.